The senseless killing of General Hospital star Johnny Wactor (ex-Brando) was horrible. Shot by the men who were trying to steal a catalytic converter from his car. His mother explained that he had stepped in front of his co-worker to protect her from the gunman, and now that co-worker, Anita Joy, has spoken out on her Instagram.
“I’ve needed to take some time to collect myself and my thoughts,” she wrote. “I was with Johnny in his last moments and I’m here to be his voice after such unimaginable events. There has been a lot within myself of ‘what to and what not to’ share about this — but the reality is, I have a responsibility to Johnny. I am his voice now because otherwise he wouldn’t have possibly been alone and he wasn’t.
“He was killed senselessly by a coward who reacted without care of the gorgeous life he was taking. So I’m angry, I’m sad, and I’m all of the feelings at once… But above all, I am here for Johnny’s justice.”
The two were leaving Level 8 following their bartending shift on Friday night. “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.,” Joy recalled. “Everything happened in an instant. 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.
“We cautiously approached the men, questioning what they were doing, at first thinking the car was being towed,” she explained. “We were no threat and Johnny 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. 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 for him, I shouted, ‘Hunny, you OK?!’ and he only responded ‘Nope! Shot!’ 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 for him to stay with me.”
A security guard from the bar joined them and called 911 on his phone. “We tied my denim jacket around him to stop the bleeding and Bryan proceeded to try CPR on him,” Joy recounted. “I’m so thankful for Bryan showing up, trying with all his might to save Johnny. It was too close range, too extreme of a wound for him to survive it, 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.”
In her lengthy and emotional Instagram post, Joy also beautifully describes the wonderful guy that Wactor was and hopes that action is taken to prevent something like this from happening to anyone else. “If you can contribute to his family, please do,” she concluded, sharing a link to the GoFundMe set up in his name. “They are on the other side of the country and it’s going to be a lot on them emotionally and financially to get Johnny home to them.”
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