Bristol stabbings: Community in grief after boys killed

A local community mourned the deaths of two teenagers last night after they were killed in a double stabbing.

About 200 people attended a vigil held for Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist,15, who have been named locally as the teenagers killed on Ilminster Avenue in Bristol on Saturday.

The two boys were attacked by a number of people in the Knowle West area of the city at about 23:20 GMT.

A 44 year-old-man and 15-year-old have been arrested, police said.

The vigil, held on Sunday night where the boys were stabbed, saw members of the community attending to light candles and lay flowers.

Sarah Hayward has lived next door to Max for 11 years.

She told the BBC: "Max was such a happy boy - full of life. We have so many brilliant memories and had so many fun times, his cheeky smile and big hart will be missed forever.

"The street will never be the same without Max, he will always be in our broken hearts missed forever."

Leanne Reynolds, a knife bin and bleed kit campaigner for the area, said people were shocked by what had happened and urged parents to search their children's bedrooms for any knives.

"I've got loads of messages and people want more bleed kits out in the community and more training," she said.

"These are not your kitchen knives, these are massive knifes that need to come off our streets. We don't need them."

Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees was amongst those who showed up to mourn the teenagers.

He told BBC Radio Bristol the stabbings have the "whole community rocked" and the vigil was a "really chilling experience".

"I'm thinking of the victims and their families, going through a pain that no parent should have to experience," he added.

Tributes left at the scene included flowers with "Mason + Max Rest in Peace" written on them, a sign stating "Stop knife crime RIP boys" and a note from Oasis Academy John Williams reading: "In loving memory of Mason and Max, gone but never forgotten".

Chris Winters, who runs a boxing club in Knowle West, said he knows the young people in the area very well and has always been worried for their safety.

"Sometimes you can't even walk from one end of Knowle West to the other end," he said.

"I've had children coming from one end of Knowle West walking to the gym and then getting stopped on the way by other children with balaclavas and knives."

Young people's charity director and independent police chair member Desmond Brown said what has happened is "devastating" and warned knife crime is turning into an "epidemic".

"We really need to stop putting lip service to this and actually really deal with this as we have done with Covid and any outbreak of death in our communities," he said.

"I can't really see an end to it at the moment.

"I speak to young people who will say 'I'd rather go to prison than be dead' because they fear for their own lives and they don't feel their parents or police can protect them."

Rev Clive Hamilton, from St Barnabas Church, in Knowle West, said he has been offering prayer support to people.

"I must admit now seeing the flowers and messages that have been left it has started to sink further home," he said.

"I hear community voices and those voices have for a while been sharing concern, frustration, a sense of powerlessness.

"You could call it a righteous anger at what has been a sense of growing potential for something like this to happen."

A meeting was held earlier for community members to talk to the police and council.

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