Two boys murdered in ‘revenge attack’ were innocent victims of mistaken identity

Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist, 15, were stabbed in the Knowle West area of Bristol City, UK, on the evening of January 27

The unwittingly stumbling into the middle of a ‘postcode rivalry,’ the prosecutor said

Barely half an hour before they were ambushed, a house in the Hartcliffe area of the city was attacked with bricks, leaving a woman inside at the time injured

Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three teenage boys aged 15, 16, and 17, who cannot be named due to their age, have been charged for murder

‘Tooled up with some pretty fearsome weapons,’ the five on a revenge mission against the people they believed responsible, drove past the victims, stopped and pounced

Dixon and Rist who both sustained stab wounds from the attack, died from their injuries

Antony Snook, Riley Tolliver, the 16 and the 17-year-old boys are charged with double-homicide along with the 15-year-old boy

Mason Rist, 15, [left], and Max Dixon, 16, [right], were fatally stabbed in the Knowle West area of Bristol on the evening of Jan 27, after innocently stepping into the middle of a turf war that they knew nothing about

Two boys murdered in a ‘revenge attack’ by a gang of four teenagers led by an adult male wielding ‘fearsome weapons’ in Bristol city, UK, early in the year, were completely innocent victims of mistaken identity, a UK court has heard.
The Bristol Crown Court hearing the murder trial of the five indicted in the murders of Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist, 15, was told the young victims were stabbed in the Knowle West area of Bristol on the evening of January 27, 2024, after unwittingly stumbling into the middle of a ‘postcode rivalry’.
Barely half an hour before the pair were ambushed, a house in the Hartcliffe area of the city was attacked with bricks, leaving a woman inside at the time injured.
Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three teenage boys aged 15, 16, and 17, who cannot be named due to their age, according to the prosecution, ‘tooled themselves up’ and headed out for vengeance.
They each deny two counts of murder.
Prosecutor Ray Tully told jurors there has been a ‘rivalry’ between Knowle West and Hartcliffe for years and there have previously been incidents involving people from ‘both postcodes’.
He added: ‘It seems that the origins of this case can be traced back to those kinds of issues.’

Artist impression of five suspects in the murders of Dixon and Rist – Anthony Snook [right], 18-year-old Riley Tolliver, along with three and teenagers aged 15, 16 and 17, at Bristol Crown Court

Surveillance camera footage played in court showed three young men carrying machetes outside a house in Hartcliffe just after 10pm on January 27, and threw bricks at the property.
The vandals broke a large number of windows and injured a woman inside the home. However, the people who paid with their lives for that act of hooliganism were not the culprits
Jurors heard that Dixon had called Rist at home and the friends then met up at around 11pm. Roughly about the same time, the four teenagers allegedly piled into Snook’s Audi in the Hartcliffe area on their revenge mission.
‘They were all tooled up, they had some pretty fearsome weapons,’ the prosecution said.
‘The five occupants of the car drove from Hartcliffe to Knowle West. As they set off, we say, they were on the hunt for the people they thought vandalized the property on their turf.
‘They set off together, they were on a joint mission, and we say that was for revenge.

15-year-old Mason Rist was one of the pair of innocent youths killed after a knife attack by a five man gang of vigilantes on Jan 27 in in the Knowle West area of Bristol, UK

‘As they drove past Max and Mason walking down the street, they thought they had spotted the people responsible for the earlier attack – or at the very least, people connected to it.
‘They were entirely wrong about that. Max and Mason had absolutely nothing to do with any earlier incident and no connection whatsoever with those events.’
The court was shown two machetes which Tully said had been recovered following the fatal attacks.

CCTV footage played to the court showed the assailants’ vehicle stopping alongside Max Dixon [photo] and Mason Rist with four people jumping out of as the boys fleeing almost immediately. Dixon and Rist both died from their injuries

CCTV footage played in court showed the Audi stopping alongside Max and Mason at 11.14pm, with four people jumping out of the vehicle and the boys fleeing immediately from the assailants.
Max and Mason are seen going to different sides of the street, each pursued by two people from the vehicle.
Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy are alleged to have attacked Mason.
The two other boys, 16 and 17 chased Max. Cut to the older boy also striking Mason, who was lying injured on the ground,, before heading back to the Audi after attacking Max.
The victims sustained stab wounds and died from their injuries.

Tributes to Dixon and Rist set at the scene where they were killed in South Bristol

Snook, Tolliver, the 16-year-old boy and the 17-year-old boy are charged with murdering Mason together with the 15-year-old boy on January 27 this year.
Snook, Tolliver and the three teenage boys are charged with murdering Max on the same date.
Tully told the court that all five defendants were ‘in it together’. Their joint attack resulted in both boys dying, which was ‘hardly surprising’ given the type of weapons used.
‘Antony Snook could and would not have been in any doubt about what these four youngsters were intending to do as he drove them round the streets of south Bristol for nearly 15 minutes hunting for their victims, the prosecutor argued.
‘Without his willingness, as an adult, to provide a car and drive these four young people around south Bristol tooled up, out looking to attack those that they thought were responsible for the attack on the house, these two killings wouldn’t ever have happened.’
The trial which is scheduled to last until the end of November continues Thursday.