Anita Joy, a colleague who witnessed the shooting death of ‘General Hospital’ actor Johnny Wactor, speaks out

LOS ANGELES (KABC)– The co-worker and friend who was with Johnny Wactor when the former “General Hospital” actor was shot and killed is speaking out about that tragic night, saying it all happened in an instant.

Anita Joy sat down with “Good Morning America” ​​and recounted her beloved friend’s final moments.

“Going through this together, I’m grateful that I was there for him and that he wasn’t alone,” she said. “It’s the only peaceful thing for his mother and me when we walk.”

A shift ends in tragedy

It was in the early hours of Saturday May 25 that it all happened.

Joy and Wactor – friends for eight years – worked together at Level 8, a rooftop bar on Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles.

“We were finishing our bartending shift starting Friday night and had to do a deep cleaning after we closed, which is unfortunate because it keeps us there longer,” she told GMA. “Normally, we go out around 2:30 a.m.”

“We went out at 3:15 in the morning,” she continued. “Johnny was very meticulous about making sure that all of our housekeeping was done very well because our main bar manager was out of town for the weekend and he was kind of standing in his place.”

Joy, Wactor and two other workers went out together.

“I’m walking with three strong guys. I didn’t have any thoughts of danger in my mind,” Joy recalls.

The other two workers headed in a different direction while Joy and Wactor headed toward their vehicles. They were parked next to each other.

“As we got to the front of my car, we noticed it was tilted a little bit. All of a sudden he said, ‘Oh no, I’m getting towed,'” Joy said.

That’s when police say they encountered three masked suspects who allegedly attempted to steal the catalytic converter from Wactor’s car.

“A man is on his knees putting a jack under the car and he got the car halfway up and then we realize this isn’t about towing people,” Joy said. “He was wearing a ski mask, so we were suddenly like, ‘Oh no, you know, that’s bad.'”

Wactor approached one of the suspects, who immediately opened fire on the 37-year-old man, then fled in a dark sedan, according to Joy.

“He took a step closer to the man and I heard a loud crack,” Joy said. “It was just a moment…loud. To me, it didn’t even sound like a gunshot. It sounded like a high-pitched pop.”

That’s when she knew something was wrong.

“He just came running back at me,” she said of Wactor. “I grab his shoulders…the momentum of his body going backwards twisted me, I try to catch him because he’s tripping over himself. I’m like, ‘Johnny, honey, you’re going GOOD ?’ and he said, ‘No, shooting.’ He looked stunned.”

The chaos that followed

Joy also described the moments that followed as Wactor lay dying in her arms.

“At this point, his arms were down at his sides and he was just a little limp. He was just wobbling back and forth, but he was also trying to gasp for breath, and I think that kind of kind of wiped out his lung, basically. He’s just doing these deep gasps trying to get air and I’m yelling at him, ‘Johnny!

She said that in those moments, her thought process was all over the place.

“I shout to him, ‘Johnny, stay with me.’ Obviously in those moments there’s not really time to think, so when he first said ‘shot,’ I think like a shoulder, an arm,” Joy said. “It’s something I’m going to have to help him overcome, but I didn’t think it was fatal.”

Joy screamed for help and a security guard she knew from work was nearby and ran towards them and called 911.

Joy said she and the security guard, whom she identified only by his first name, Bryan, tied his jean jacket around Wactor “to stop the bleeding” and that Bryan attempted CPR on Wactor, but their efforts were not enough to save him.

“As the ambulance pulled up, he started coughing up blood and he escaped into my arms,” Joy said.

Wactor was rushed to hospital where he later died.

Remembering Johnny Wactor

Joy broke her silence about the incident on social media, sharing a lengthy post on Instagram on Wednesday evening.

Wactor’s family spoke out Tuesday in an interview on “Good Morning America” ​​and said they are desperate for answers in the cases of their son and brother.

“They took a wonderful person,” said Scarlett Wactor, Wactor’s mother.

Joy feels the same way.

“Everyone has their own experience of their friends and the people in their lives,” she said. “Without any relationship to each other, right off the bat, everyone wrote the exact same things about who he was. It just shows his character and his authentic nature. That’s who he was.”

“He was the one who gave you his shirt. He was the one who stood in front of you if you were going to get shot, if that’s the case. You could be friends with him for 10 minutes, you could be friends with him for 10 years and that’s the same energy he would give you.

The bar is currently exploring safety measures for employees

Level 8 owners said Friday they are looking for ways to improve employee safety.

“At Level 8, we take security very seriously,” reads a message from the establishment on social media. “Since opening, we have offered our staff the opportunity to escort security to the nearby parking lot after hours. And in light of this tragic incident, we have spoken with our team and professionals at area and are actively seeking additional safety measures for our staff.

We understand that a tragedy like this affects everyone differently and deeply. We are committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for everyone at Level 8.”

Owners called Wactor a “valued and cherished member of the team” who was lost “due to a random act of violence.”

“This has been difficult to deal with for everyone who knew him. He was loved by his peers and colleagues, and we will all miss his talent and generous spirit. Our thoughts are with his family and all those who are affected by this terrible and senseless tragedy.

As part of Joy’s social media post, she added: “Level 8 needs to provide parking for their staff working late at night, as they originally promised. prevent something like this from happening again to the best of their abilities. Level 8 is to help Johnny’s family honor and respect him for all the hard work and effort he has done for them.

Level 8’s post included a link to a GoFundMe page set up for Wactor’s family. As of Friday evening, the page had raised nearly $110,000.

Meanwhile, the suspects in this case remain at large and police are seeking the public’s help in identifying them. Dominic Choi, acting chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, told Eyewitness News there have been about 32 catalytic converter thefts in downtown Los Angeles, compared to more than 100 in 2023.

“They’re down substantially, it’s just a very unfortunate situation,” he said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.