Baby brother, you were a beautiful, kind soul
Sister’s tribute to boy, 16, killed in double stabbing
THE family of a boy who was stabbed to death yards from his front door yesterday said their lives ‘will never be the same’.
max Dixon, 16, and friend mason rist, 15, both died after they were attacked by a gang on a Bristol housing estate on Saturday night.
as police investigated whether the killings could be a case of mistaken identity, max’s three sisters paid tribute to his ‘beautiful, kind soul’ yesterday.
Writing on Facebook, one of the sisters kayleigh, 22, said: ‘my heart is broken. my baby brother... one of a kind you are.
‘You sleep tight. a beautiful, kind soul gone. I really hope you know how much we love you. You will be missed kiddo.’
His mother Leanne said she was ‘devastated’, adding: ‘Our lives will never be the same without you my boy.’
meanwhile, a friend of football fan mason said he ‘had only just lost his dad’ during the pandemic.
Teenager Shere, 18, said he knew the two boys well, adding: ‘I don’t know how
‘You will always be remembered’
[mason’s] mum is coping right now. It’s a cruel world.’
another teenager, who lives a couple of houses down from the scene of the crime, said she saw a group flee in a car and a van after the stabbings.
The boys’ attackers fled in at least one vehicle after the violence in the knowle West neighbourhood.
Bristol police commander Superintendent mark runacres said he didn’t believe the attack was ‘rooted in a gang war’ but could not confirm whether the killings were a case of mistaken identity. He added that detectives had not yet recovered any weapons.
a good samaritan who rushed to the aid of mason said he was as ‘white as a ghost’ before collapsing. kirsty kidd told how she ran from a bus to help the boy, killed just three years after his father, Shayne rist, 50, died.
She told the Independent how mason ‘fell into my ex-partner’s arms and then on to the floor’.
‘I gave him my blanket and pillow and stayed with him,’ she said. ‘He looked up at me and said “help” and I hugged him.’
ms kidd said she didn’t realise a second boy had been stabbed
until someone else found max further up the road.
another resident, Julie O’reilly, said she heard a bang and ran out to mason, telling him ‘to stay with us, people are coming to help’.
Police were on the scene within minutes of the attack in Ilminster avenue and made their first arrest within an hour. a 44-year-old man and a 15- year- old boy were arrested and a vehicle was seized.
Yesterday, two further men, aged 20 and 22, were detained – with avon and Somerset Police saying that more arrests could be expected. among tributes left at the
scene was a sign stating ‘ Stop knife crime rIP boys’, and a note from one of the victim’s teachers.
It said: ‘ Today there will be a missing smile in my classroom. You will always be remembered lovely boys.’
Sir keir Starmer described the killings as ‘ devastating for the family and friends of these two youngsters’.
Speaking during a visit to Warrington, Cheshire, the Labour leader said there had been a 77 per cent rise in knife crime since 2015. ‘We need real ambition by the Government’, he said. ‘We can’t carry
on with these awful stories of knife crime. We have to roll up our sleeves and do something about it.’
England rugby star Ellis Genge grew up in knowle West and went to nursery on Ilminster avenue.
He expressed his shock at the deaths on social media, writing: ‘my thoughts are with the families affected by this tragic incident.
‘kids in these communities need more support and help to be kept away from violence.’
knowle West and other nearby estates have been blighted by violence triggered by postcode rivalries amongst youths.