Gang who hunted down and knifed two innocent pals to death in gruesome case of mistaken identity are GUILTY of murder
A GANG who hunted down and knifed two innocent boys to death in a grisly case of mistaken identity have been found guilty of murder.
Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist, 15, were unwittingly embroiled in a "postcode rivalry" in the Bristol suburb of Knowle.
Their killers had wrongly identified them as the culprits of an earlier attack - leading them to "tool up" with an arsenal of "fearsome weapons".
Chilling CCTV then showed the brutes chasing down the two teens as they innocently walked down the street together.
Both pals attempted to run back towards Mason's home nearby but were separated during the hunt.
Mason was knifed once in the back and chest - causing "unsurvivable injuries" - while Max was stabbed once in the abdomen.
They tragically died within 15 minutes of each other after being rushed to hospital.
Antony Snook, 45, and Riley Tolliver, 18, and three teenage boys aged 15, 16 and 17, were jointly charged with murder.
Tolliver, 18, the 16-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boy and Snook, 45, have now been convicted following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.
The 15-year-old was also found guilty of the murder of Max after previously pleading guilty to the murder of Mason.
Jurors heard the horror unfolded on January 27 amid a postcode "rivalry" between the Knowle West and Hartcliffe areas of Bristol.
Around an hour before the boys were killed, a house in Hartcliffe had been attacked by youngsters hurling bricks through a window and injuring a woman.
At 11pm, Snook, Tolliver and the three teen defendants left the area armed with their stash of weapons.
They drove from Hartcliffe to Knowle West "on the hunt" for the people they believed were responsible for the attack on the house.
Ray Tully KC, prosecuting, said: "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."
Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy allegedly attacked Mason, while the 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy are said to have chased Max.
The footage showed the gang speeding off in Snook's Audi as Max and Mason were left dying on the street.
The gang were remanded into custody to be sentenced on a later date.
