Max Dixon, 16, called his friend Mason Rist, 15, on his mobile to go out and buy food at night in Knowle West, the Bristol neighborhood where they lived. Max's mother, Leanne Ekland, did not hear him leave at that hour and thought he was peacefully asleep in his room. Suddenly, she heard a commotion outside the house, and couldn't believe it when they knocked on her door to inform her that her son had just been stabbed.
"They took me to see him. He was lying on the ground. Paramedics were trying to cut his coat to reach the wounds, and the first thing I thought of was the disappointment Max would feel seeing his Christmas gift cut. I told him: 'Mom is here,' and he knew I was by his side. He looked so pale and cold. He kept telling me: 'Mom, I want to go to sleep'."
The next thing Leanne remembers is a call from the Police from her son's phone, followed by a very blurred image in her apartment: "It was like in a movie; they wouldn't let me go anywhere." The next scene was at the hospital, where Max and Mason, the inseparable friends, died within 15 minutes of each other due to the wounds caused by authentic 42-centimeter machetes.
It was a case of "mistaken identity" between street gangs. Without giving them a chance to speak or defend themselves, five young people and teenagers with their faces covered stabbed them in revenge for a brick attack hours earlier in the rival area of Hartcliffe. The five perpetrators, along with a 45-year-old driver who facilitated their escape, have been sentenced this month to life imprisonment, with minimum sentences ranging from 15 to 38 years in prison.
In January, it will be a year since the tragic incident that marked the beginning of 2024, a year in which 49,489 knife attacks were recorded in England and Wales. Among them, the alarming conviction of two 12-year-old children in Wolverhampton for a fatal stabbing. The British government has taken measures such as banning the sale of "zombie" knives, serrated knives, and knives up to 50 centimeters long, which until this year could be easily purchased online. Between 2012 and 2020, knife attacks increased by 85%, reaching proportions that experts describe as "epidemic." In many cases, the attackers were not even 16 years old.
Leanne Ekland never saw her teenage son Max Dixon with a knife. His favorite hobby was playing PlayStation with his late friend Mason. "I don't understand the culture of violence in street gangs," confesses Leanne Ekland, now in the role of a brave mother against knife culture. "Many times I think about what the boys must have felt when they were attacked, when they weren't even allowed to say: 'We have nothing to do with this'."
"Part of the problem lies within the family, because there are many parents who don't really know what their children are involved in," Leanne acknowledges. "Sometimes I wonder how I would have acted if I had heard the door that night, if I could have stopped him before he left... No parent should bury their child under any circumstances; it's not fair. It's like being sentenced to life imprisonment."
Leanne has three older daughters, and they all miss the "spark" that the youngest member of the family brought: "Max was our glue; with him, we felt complete. He was loud, yes, you could hear him coming before he appeared. And with his friend Mason, who was very calm, they made a great team."
"The people who killed them have taken our hearts; they have to understand that they shattered us," warns Leanne, who wore pictures of Max and Mason printed on her black shirt during a recent appearance on the BBC. "Everyone says it will get better, but almost a year later, I see no signs of improvement. Max is the first and last thing I think about every day. I still have the plate and glass he used that same night in his room."