Anita Joy, a friend and coworker of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor, shared an eyewitness account of his murder on Thursday, calling for justice and mourning the fact that Wactor was “killed senselessly by a coward.”
She wrote in a detailed Instagram post that she and a security guard from Level 8 in Downtown Los Angeles, where the two worked, were the last to see him alive.
“My friend of eight years went from laughing together, working side by side, leaving our bartending shift and walking to our cars, to him dying in my arms in the streets of DTLA in the dark hours of 3 a.m.,” she wrote.
Recounting the early Saturday morning incident following their May 24 shift at Level 8, Joy said Wactor’s slaying came down to the fact that “a few criminals [were] trying to steal a car part and all they took was my friend’s life.”
“Everything happened in an instant,” she said, noting that Wactor approached the thieves who were after his car’s catalytic converter, initially thinking that he was being towed. “I’ve come to describe it as a glass of water that gets tipped over and you’re scrambling to grab it and save it from spilling out completely, but it just runs through your fingertips and is gone.”
“Hands open to his sides in peace. Johnny was between me and the man who shot him — as I heard the shot ring into the night, he forcefully tumbled back into my arms and as I grabbed him, I shouted, ‘Hunny you OK?!’ And he only responded, ‘Nope! Shot!,’” her post continued. “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.”
While a Level 8 security guard she identified as Bryan called 9-1-1 and attempted CPR, Joy said she knotted her denim jacket around the wound to quell the bleeding. She admitted in hindsight, “It was too close range, too extreme of a wound for him to survive but my god, he fought to stay.”
“I am 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,” she said.
Read her post and view her gallery of photos with Wactor below.
The actor’s agent David Shaul confirmed the news of his death at age 37 to TheWrap on Sunday, saying, “Johnny Wactor was a spectacular human being. Not just a talented actor who was committed to his craft, but a real moral example to everyone who knew him. Standing for hard work, tenacity and a never-give-up attitude. In the highs and lows of a challenging profession, he always kept his chin up and kept striving for the best he could be.”
He added: “Our time with Johnny was a privilege we would wish on everyone. He would literally give you the shirt off his back. After over a decade together, he will leave a hole in our hearts forever.”
Captioning her Instagram post on Thursday, Joy concluded by calling on Level 8 to provide parking for their late-hour staff, as safety has been a standing concern.
“This cannot be something that isn’t responded to with action, it needs to be addressed in a manner to prevent anything like this ever happening again to the best of their ability,” she wrote. “Level 8 needs to contribute to Johnny’s family to honor and respect him for all the hard work and effort he did for them.”
Wactor was last seen on soap opera “General Hospital” in 2022, having left after his character Brando Corbin was killed off.
