The co-worker of Johnny Wactor recounted Friday the final moments of the “General Hospital” actor who was shot and killed in downtown Los Angeles last week.
Anita Joy, who worked with Wactor at the Level 8 bar nearly a year, said they walked toward their cars near Pico Boulevard and Hope Street.
“We noticed his car was at a strange angle,” Joy recalled. “Our initial thought was, ‘Oh, no. We’re getting towed.’”
Quickly they realized three people were trying to steal a catalytic converter from Wactor’s car.
“He continued walking forward in front of me,” she recalled. “We confronted the guys and said, ‘Hey this is his car. What are you doing?’”
Joy said Wactor had his palms up to his side when one of the thieves stood up and fired his weapon.
“Johnny stepped forward towards the one, and I heard a gunshot. I heard a crack,” she described. “The guy just reacted and shot him. There was no warning, no verbal confrontation. It was just an immediate reaction.”
Joy said she hadn’t realized he was shot until she tried to pull him up after he fell to the ground.
“I said, ‘Johnny honey, are you ok?’ And he said, ‘Nope. Shot!”
Joy said seconds after Wactor uttered his last words, she saw blood on her hands, his shirt and chest.
“He had a shot directly to the chest,” Joy explained, saying everything happened fast.
While she said she is still taking it one day at a time after the traumatic incident, she said she was with Wactor when he died.
“I really feel like he is my new guardian angel,” Joy said. “I’m grateful I was with him. He wasn’t by himself.”
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Source: NBC Los Angeles
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