MUM-of-three Nikki Knight was on a rare night out with pals when her teenage son’s number flashed up on her phone.
Worried about leaving 15-year-old Mason Rist home alone, she had left him £20 for a takeaway and made him promise to message her if needed.
Quickly sweeping up the phone to her ear, Nikki was confused when she heard an unexpected voice as a police officer told her Mason had been “fatally injured”.
“I thought it was Mason messing around doing a silly voice,” she says. “That it was some sort of joke.”
It took seconds for the horrifying truth to sink in.
Mason and his friend Max Dixon, 16, had been attacked by a gang armed with machetes and zombie knives with blades up to 20 inches long.
In a heart-rending case of mistaken identity the boys were slaughtered close to their homes in Bristol – their last moments caught on CCTV outside Nikki’s house.
On Thursday four teenagers, 18-year-old Riley Tolliver, 17-year-old Kodishai Wescott and two boys aged 16, and 15 – who cannot be named for legal reasons – were handed life sentences for the attack that shocked Britain in January.
Getaway driver Antony Snook, 45, was last month jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years.
Talking exclusively to The Sun, Nikki told how she tried to convince herself Mason would live as she caught a 20-minute taxi back from the pub that fateful night.
She said: “I still didn’t believe it was happening.
“When I got home the whole road was closed off and the police wouldn’t let me cross their tape at first. I was screaming, ‘where’s my son?’
“Nobody was telling me anything. I thought he might have still been at home, but someone said he’s in one of the ambulances
“Maybe I should have fought harder to get through, but I think the police were protecting me.
“I think it would have been too much to see him like that. I’m glad I didn’t see that because I wouldn’t have been able to cope.
“Still in my mind, I thought they would just treat him, and he would be fine.”
Bristol Crown Court heard how innocent Mason and Max, friends since nursery, who lived down the street from each other, had been walking to buy a pizza when they were “hunted” down after being wrongly identified.
Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy attacked Mason while the 16-year-old and Wescott chased Max.
Mason was knifed once in the back and chest while his best friend was stabbed in the abdomen.
The gang were hell bent on revenge after masked-up lads threw bricks at the window of a house in Hartcliffe, Bristol.
They travelled to West Knowle to find the culprits after both areas were blighted by postcode rivalries – and mistakenly identified Max and Mason.
By the time Nikki, 51, reached her son at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children after being given a lift by a friend, he had already succumbed to his “unsurvivable” injuries.
He died at 12.49am while Max passed away at 1.02am, three miles away at Southmead Hospital.
Nikki was so traumatised she couldn’t face seeing her son after his death.
The healthcare practitioner said: “When I got to the hospital the doctor blurted out ‘I’m sorry but he’s died.’
“I felt like there was no sympathy – to them, it’s just another kid.
“But this was my son.
“I don’t remember much, or even if I cried, I was just numb.
“I just couldn’t see him. I couldn’t have my last memory of Mason be his face in that hospital bed. I just wouldn’t have been able to deal with it.
“It was like a nightmare I couldn’t get through or wake up from.
“I have so many good memories of him and that’s what’s kept me going.”
Mason’s family described in court how they were “over protective” of the “vulnerable and harmless” teen after he was diagnosed with autism aged three.
He was also still mourning the death of his dad Shayne Rist, 50, who died of covid in December 2021.
Understandably, Nikki worried about leaving Mason alone when she went out and he usually stayed with his granny or older sister Chloe Rist.
Chloe faced her brother’s killers in court, showing them his ashes, hair and a handprint telling them: “This is all I have left of him.”
Nikki told the Sun : “Mason usually stayed with Chloe or my mum when I went out but this time he stayed home alone.
“On the odd occasion he’s been in the house by himself, he never usually went out so I thought he’d be safe.
“I always worried about him.
“I didn’t with the older ones, but I always did with Mas.
“I used to cut up his food, and he’d wind me up about it saying, ‘Mum, stop it.’
“That night, I told him to order his McDonald’s before I left.
“He was like ‘don’t worry, I’m not going to choke if you go out.’
I found ECG chest pads used on my son in my garden
Mason's mum Nikki
“When I got that call at the pub I answered and they said, ‘it’s the police’ and I didn’t believe it.
“I said, ‘Mas, stop messing around’
“I thought he was at home, maybe a mate came over and they were doing silly voices.”
Nikki, a quietly spoken woman who still finds it hard to talk about her son, told how the attack was captured on footage caught from CCTV installed outside her home.
Weeks after her son’s death, she was shocked to discover ECG pads used to try and save Mason in her garden.
“I was weeding when I came across them embedded in the grass,” says Nikki.
“They were from my son’s chest, I just had to throw them away.
“How do you cope with that?
“What happened is always on my mind, so I have to put a block on it.
“It’s the only way to keep going.”
Nikki is now desperate to move away from the street where the tragedy occurred.
She said: “I’ve not been the same since. I’ve not been able to go into his room.
“I know when I move, I’ll have to go in there and pack up things.
“But I’ll have to have help from family to do it, I can’t on my own.
“If I sit and think about Mason, I’ll start crying so I have to stay strong.
“I don’t sleep well anymore – maybe a couple of hours a night.
“I’m a 51-year-old woman who sleeps with the light on.
“I don’t feel safe here anymore, anytime someone parks on the drive, like a delivery man, I’m so paranoid something else is going to happen.
“The problem is I have to keep living here and dealing with it.
“It happened outside of my house – I can’t escape it.”
Max Dixon's family spoke of their pain in an emotional victim impact statement in court.
Max’s mum Leanne Ekland said: “The night of 27th January became the worst night of my life. Max was my only son; he was also the youngest of four. The death of my son has impacted my life in such a way that it will never be the same.
“That night I heard a car pull up outside my house and I heard my name, and the words ‘Max has been stabbed’, I initially thought this was a wind up as at this time I thought my son was in bed, I then realised that this wasn’t a joke, I was screaming and begging the boys to take me to my son.
“When I got there, I can just remember screaming let me see my son and people around me, stopping me, I can remember finally sitting on the ground with Max’s head between my legs, telling him I was there and to open his eyes, I remember him looking at me and his eyes closing, he said he just wanted to sleep.
“It was so frantic as the paramedics were working on him, cutting away at his clothes, he was so pale. I remember being taken to Southmead hospital by a police officer on my own, no one there with me.
“When I arrived, my daughter Kayleigh and Max’s dad were waiting. We were taken to a room. Not long after someone came in to tell us we are sorry, I didn’t even let them finish.
“Max was a 16-year-old boy exploring and figuring out what he wanted to do in life. Max was a big character with a happy and joyful look on life, he was funny, kind and caring. He was a huge part of the family and was very popular among his friends. We were very close; he was my boy.”
She described Mason as a “shy and quiet” boy, who loved spending time at home, playing on his PlayStation.
Nikki said: “He only had a couple of friends from school.
“He’d come every night and chat to them online.
“He wasn’t mixed-up in any gangs – nothing like that.
“I would joke with him saying ‘you wouldn’t even hit a fly’.”
At Bristol Crown Court, Mason’s sister Chloe took in memories of her brother including his handprint and hair.
In a powerful impact statement she told his killers: “”This is Mason’s ashes and this is what you’ve done. If anyone is upset about me bringing them to court today, that is all I have left of him.
“I shouldn’t have to look at my brother’s bone fragments either. I also have a piece of his hair which has his blood on it, if you want to see it?
“This is my dead brother’s handprint. Another thing you’ve done. I should be able to hold my brother’s hand, not look at it on a piece of paper. This is all I have left of him.”
Killer Tolliver and the 17-year-old accomplice will serve at least 23 years, the 16-year-old will be in jail for at least 18 years and the 15-year-old 15 years.
Mr Justice May told the young boys as they were sentenced: “They (Max and Mason) were your age. They had done nothing wrong.
“Their families must go on without them in a different way. Your lives will change too. As Mason’ sister said, there are no winners here.”
Mason and Max’s murders struck fear into the heart of every parent worried about the nation’s growing knife culture.
Bristol has two notorious gangs known as the 16s and 24s
They are behind a spate of stabbings and violent assaults across the city and the M32 motorway marks the boundary between their territories – the 16s in the Fishponds and Staple Hill and the 24s in St Pauls.
The latter boast of being able to commit crime ’24 hours a day’ and get away with it.
Max and Mason were victims of another, older gang rivalry in Bristol between neighbouring Hartcliffe and Knowle West in the south of the city, which both have high deprivation levels.
Violence between the 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 Michael Rice, 20, who was riding a stolen motorbike.
The teen placed a bicycle in the path of his victim, who crashed and died. A court heard how they belonged to rival groups in Hartcliffe and Knowle.
Bristol 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.
Police carry out regular sweeps of parks and bushes for weapons while campaigners are stationing ‘bleed kits’ around the city, special first aid kits that can be used in emergencies.
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 by 14 per cent between 2022 and 2023, according to the Home Office.
