A friend and co-worker of actor Johnny Wactor, who was fatally shot over the weekend as he interrupted a catalytic converter theft in downtown Los Angeles, spent his last moments shielding her from harm before he died in her arms.
Wactor, 37, who played Brando Corbin on the beloved soap opera “General Hospital,” died of a gunshot wound to the chest on Saturday, and the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office ruled his death was a homicide.
Wactor’s co-worker and friend of eight years, Anita Joy, who was with him when he was shot, shared the horror that unfolded that night in an emotional Instagram post Wednesday.
Joy and Wactor had worked a bartending shift Friday night at Level 8 in downtown Los Angeles and were headed to their cars early Saturday when they approached men seen near his car, thinking it was possibly being towed.
“We were no threat and Jonny kept his cool as he always did, simply stating that it was his car and for them to leave. Hands open to his sides in peace,” Joy wrote.
Then a shot rang out. Joy said Wactor was between her and the person who shot him.
"As I heard the shot ring into the night, he forcefully tumbled back into my arms and as I grabbed for him, I shouted 'Hunny you ok?!' And he only responded 'Nope! Shot!'" she said.
“We toppled onto the street where I pushed my legs under him and tried to hold his body up while screaming for help and screaming at him to stay with me,” she added.
A security guard from their bar crossed the street shortly after, ran toward the two and called 911.
Joy recalled tying her denim jacket around Wactor to stop the bleeding and said the security guard performed CPR on Wactor.
“It was too close range, too extreme of a wound for him to survive it but my god, he fought to stay,” Joy wrote, noting, “Everything happened in an instant.”
She said she has been left “utterly heartbroken and so very angry.”
“My only peace is that I was with him and this didn’t happen to him alone — my only other peace will be seeing these awful men brought to justice.”
Los Angeles police said officers responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon at 3:25 a.m. Saturday and found Wactor with an apparent gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Wactor was shot after he arrived at his car and was confronted by three people who had his vehicle “raised up with a floor jack and were in the process of stealing the catalytic converter,” authorities said. Police said, based on witness statements, that he was shot “without provocation.”
The three people fled northbound on Hope Street in a dark sedan. No arrests have been made.
Wactor’s mother, Scarlett Wactor, told NBC News over the weekend that her son and a co-worker came upon his car, which had been jacked up. He stopped in front of his co-worker and asked someone on the ground next to his vehicle whether he was being towed, at which point the person shot him, she said.
Wactor, who hailed from Charleston, South Carolina, always wanted to be an actor, his mother previously told NBC News. He made that dream a reality, making his TV debut on Lifetime’s “West Wives,” and went on to appear in 164 episodes of “General Hospital.” He also appeared on television’s “Westworld” and as a voice in the video game “Call of Duty: Vanguard,” according to the Internet Movie Database.
Joy remembered Wactor as “magnetic,” respectful, compassionate, beautiful, “goofy as hell” and “full of work ethic and values.”
“Johnny had this incredible ability that was truly just his genuine nature — to make anyone and everyone feel so special in his eyes. No matter how well you knew him, he treated everyone like he truly cared about you,” she wrote. “Absolutely one of the best men I’ve ever known. I’m so grateful to have been a part of his world and him, mine.”
She also shared an online fundraiser organized by Wactor’s godmother to support his family.