Inside gang warfare explosion that’s seen innocent children knifed to death and turned Bristol into Wild West Country
The brutal murders shine a light on gang warfare — not just in that part of Bristol, but across the UK as knife crime spirals out of control
THEY were best friends who grew up together, bonded from the moment they met at nursery school.
When 16-year-old Max Dixon and his 15-year-old pal Mason Rist weren’t visiting each other’s homes — just a five-minute walk apart — they would spend hours chatting online on their Play- Stations.
Tragically they also died together — cut down by a bloodthirsty gang in a heart-rending case of mistaken identity.
Their murders in January shocked Britain and struck fear into the heart of every parent worried about the nation’s growing knife culture.
Horrifying CCTV footage captured the moment four thugs attacked the boys with a baseball bat and machetes and zombie knives with blades up to 20 inches long.
The savage assault close to their homes in Bristol lasted for just 33 seconds.
Max’s mum Leanne Ekland later described how she cradled her dying son’s head in her lap as he told her he “just wanted to go to sleep”, while Mason’s mum Nikki is so traumatised by her loss that she is still unable to go into her boy’s empty bedroom.
Broken homes
The brutal murders shine a light on gang warfare — not just in that part of Bristol, where the use of drugs, weapons and violence is rampant, but across the UK as knife crime spirals out of control.
Latest police-recorded statistics, released in October, show knife-related offences have increased by four per cent in a year.
Across Avon and Somerset, which covers Bristol, stabbings rose 14 per cent between 2022 and 2023, according to Home Office statistics.
In Bristol, rival gangs known as the 16s and 24s are behind a spate of stabbings and violent assaults.
Last year saw three fatal attacks in the city, as well as one in neighbouring Bath, 12 miles away, where 16-year-old Mikey Roynon died after being stabbed in the neck with a zombie knife during a house party.
So far this year, six teens including Mason and Max, and four adults have been stabbed to death in the Bristol area alone.
On the streets, families and community groups say they fear an epidemic and have written an open letter calling for action.
Police are carrying out sweeps of parks and bushes for weapons and say local drug lords are dragging kids into dealing in some of the city’s most deprived areas.
In east Bristol, the M32 motorway marks the boundary between the rival gangs’ territories — the 16s in the Fishponds and Staple Hill section of the city, and the 24s in St Pauls.
The latter boast of being able to commit crime “24 hours a day” — and get away with it.
I’m lucky I got out when I did but I know of mates who didn’t and died during these gang wars. I didn’t want to be another victim.
Former gang member
Beneath the motorway flyover near the Fishponds junction is a dimly lit concrete area covered in spray-painted “tag” names, which is almost a no-man’s land between the gangs.
A former 16s gang member said: “Both gangs come from really run-down areas and many, like me, came from broken homes, from absent fathers, with mothers just trying to keep their kids under control.
“At one time kids from both gangs were an unofficial street family.
“But all that changed in the years before Covid when various members started to make videos declaring they were the boys who ran Bristol.
“It was all based around drill and rap music, with both sides taking the p*** out of other kids.
“One video led to another and things quickly escalated. There were skirmishes between the gangs who were armed with knives while roaming the streets on scooters and bikes.
“Then the inevitable happened and one of the 16s was knifed to death in an attack. The whole thing blew up and it was like the Wild West.”
Drugs market
Now a 30-year-old father of two, our insider added: “I’m lucky I got out when I did but I know of mates who didn’t and died during these gang wars. I didn’t want to be another victim.
“It was hard to break away but I just had to, for the sake of my kids.”
Max and Mason were victims of one of Bristol’s oldest gang rivalries, between neighbouring Hartcliffe and Knowle West in the south, which both have high levels of deprivation.
The boys were attacked by 18-year-old Riley Tolliver and three boys aged 17, 16 and 15 — who cannot be named for legal reasons — who were hunting for youngsters who had thrown bricks at the window of a house in Hartcliffe.
The four will be sentenced for their murders this month, while Antony Snook, 45, who drove the getaway car, was last month jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years.
Locals told The Sun that Snook was a regular drug user, and one said his house had been “cuckooed” — taken over by a criminal gang.
One resident said: “He’d have done anything to score, but that’s no excuse. He was a grown man who could have put a stop to that attack. He’s disgusting.”
Violence between the rival areas has flared up before. In 2019 a 16-year-old was sentenced to three years in a young offenders’ institution for causing the death of 20-year-old Michael Rice, who was riding a stolen motorbike.
The teenager placed a bicycle in the path of his victim, who crashed and died. The court heard how they belonged to rival gangs in Hartcliffe and Knowle West.
Today, flowers lie at the spot where Max and Mason died. In a nearby parade of shops, a bleed kit to treat stab victims has been installed by the Daniel Baird Foundation charity — named in memory of a 17-year-old knife victim who died in 2017.
Superintendent Mark Runacres, of Avon and Somerset Police, said scared youngsters are now carrying knives “for protection” in the city.
He blamed local drug lords for dragging kids into crime, rather than county line gangs prevalent in other cities across the UK.
He said: “Bristol has an established drugs market and we work hard to try to disrupt and dismantle them, but we know that young people are being exploited.
“Where you’ve got disadvantage, deprivation and disengagement, that creates a vulnerability which creates an opportunity for exploitation.
Bleed kits
“This is where we need to target our work to keep those young people safe because they can become either next year’s victim or perpetrator of this kind of offence.”
He said the city could not “police its way” through knife crime, which could only be stamped out with early intervention and community measures.
Supt Runacres added: “Family and education are the two most significant drivers that will either keep a person on the right track or allow them to drift somewhere we wouldn’t want them to be.”
When people think about drug dealing they think about yachts and big cars, but when we talk to young people it’s about helping to pay their mum’s rent, or the electricity or gas.
Martin Bisp, Empire Fighting Chance boxing gym
Experts agree deprivation plays a huge part in gang culture, and inequality levels in Bristol are huge, with residents in poor neighbourhoods on average likely to die 12 years earlier than those in more affluent areas.
Martin Bisp, boss of the Empire Fighting Chance boxing gym, which helps youths to quit gangs, said: “Young people who get caught up in drug dealing are not thriving, they are surviving.
“When people think about drug dealing they think about yachts and big cars, but when we talk to young people it’s about helping to pay their mum’s rent, or the electricity or gas.”
He said most youngsters who carry knives often do so out of fear, because they believe others carry them too, and he added that the weapons had become more lethal as youngsters buy zombie knives.
Empire helps young people with its programme of sport and therapy which it has rolled out to 32 other gyms across the country.
Parents across the city are also raising cash to buy bleed kits used to treat stabbing victims.
Hayley Ryall, mum of knife victim Mikey, who died in June 2023, has launched a charity to train people how to use the kits in local pubs, community centres and youth clubs.
Hayley, 44, a diet consultant, said: “I think kids carry knives because they’re scared. They think, ‘Everyone carries a knife so I should’.
“I set up the charity to keep Mikey’s name alive. He was my only child and I miss him every day.
“I’m still totally numb, even though it’s been more than a year.
“I still can’t deal with the thought that he won’t ever come home.
“Mikey’s death wasn’t gang-related but there’s this culture of knife-carrying now. Youngsters listen to drill music, which has lyrics about shanks (knives) and weapons, which adds to the whole attraction.
“Every death is just utterly senseless and a total waste. Nothing is going to change until we change the whole culture around the issue.”
