‘This Was a Racist Attack’: Judge Calls White Woman Who Murdered Black Man a ‘Plain Danger’ After She Bragged, ‘I Regret Stabbing Him, Not That He Died,’ But She Still Avoids Prison
A mentally ill woman who declared herself the “Charles Bronson of Bristol” after fatally stabbing a 61-year-old Black man in broad daylight had pleaded for psychiatric help moments before the racially motivated attack that killed Hubert “Isaac” Brown in southwest England two years ago.
The case resurfaced late last week as a judge in Bristol ordered 37-year-old Christina Howell to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act, citing the racially motivated nature of the killing and her ongoing danger to the public.
Police said Howell — who had initially denied murder but later admitted to manslaughter on mental health grounds — stabbed Hubert Brown in the neck on September 29, 2023, after telling a visiting nurse she was going to “get the Jamaican drug dealer,” talking about Brown.
The victim, who had no such ties, was simply sitting on a wall on Grosvenor Road in the St. Pauls area of Bristol when Howell approached and attacked him without warning.
In the hours before the killing, Howell — who suffers from schizoaffective disorder — posted a series of disturbing messages on Facebook, including claims that she was being hunted by “the devil,” and had placed a Bible and a knife by her front door, as if preparing for a fight.
At 3:15 p.m. on the day of the stabbing, Howell was seen by a community mental health nurse. During the visit, she pulled a four-inch lock knife from her bra and placed it ominously on a table.
Howell told the nurse she “needed help” and wanted to go to the hospital. She then made the chilling remark: “I need to get the Jamaican drug dealer who gave my cousin crack cocaine” — it was apparently a delusion she had about Brown — a man she did not know.
Despite her alarming behavior, the nurse allowed her to leave without alerting authorities. Minutes later, Howell plunged the knife into Brown’s neck.
Witnesses said Howell shouted racial slurs during and after the attack. One man who tried to intervene heard her say: “I told you I was going to do it,” before adding: “You’re all protecting the drug dealers.”
Bleeding from a deep neck wound, Brown saw his life slipping away. Bystanders rushed in and carried him to a taxi, which rushed him to the hospital but the well-known and well-liked figure was dead within moments of arrival.
Detective Inspector Nadine Partridge, the senior investigating officer, said: “This was an unprovoked, senseless, and vile racist attack on a man who was simply going about his life — a man who did nothing wrong. This has been a heart-breaking case from the start, and our hope is that today brings some measure of peace to Isaac’s loved ones.”
Back at the scene, witnesses pointed out Howell to police and she was placed in custody. At the station, she referred to herself as “the Charles Bronson of Bristol,” then described the killing as “perfect,” and said she would have done it in the police station if she still had the knife. When charged with murder, she replied: “I regret that I stabbed him, not that he died.”
She also told officers: “The man died because of the drug dealers, the 20-year-olds with Rolexes and BMWs, the 14-year-olds with machetes. It’s all over St. Pauls. There’s a lot more where that came from.”
A forensic psychiatrist confirmed that Howell had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act multiple times since 2013 and had been hospitalized at least 14 times. She had a long-standing diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and was being treated with antipsychotic injections at the time of the killing.
Prosecutor Richard Posner told Bristol Crown Court: “She left home with a knife and a clear intention to kill someone. She believed that this was justified. She had convinced herself that the man she killed was a drug dealer. He wasn’t.”
In November 2024, Howell pleaded not guilty to murder. But she later admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. On Friday, Judge Peter Blair KC imposed a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act, along with a restriction order under Section 41 — meaning Howell could be detained indefinitely.
“You plainly are a danger,” the judge told her. “It was a racist attack. Let’s make no bones about it… this is a case that requires imprisonment for life. But I have been persuaded that it would be inappropriate to pass a hybrid order.”
Howell is currently being held at Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire. As part of the order, she has been banned from ever returning to Bristol.
Brown’s cousin, Dion Johnson, said his death had shattered their family and that the killer showed a “complete lack of remorse.” In a powerful victim impact statement, she said: “Isaac is more than another victim of racist violence. He deserves respect, and his loss should not be in vain. To know that those were some of the last words Isaac heard before he died causes us unbearable pain.”
Howell’s chilling demeanor — boasting and showing little remorse during and after the stabbing — has drawn comparisons to Joanne Dennehy, the British spree killer from a decade earlier who murdered three men in Cambridgeshire and later stabbed two others at random in 2013.
Her reference to Charles Bronson alluded to the tough-as-nails persona of the late actor in films like “Death Wish,” where he portrayed a remorseless vigilante who took justice into his own hands.