Cops are asking help from the public to identify suspects involved in the murder of General Hospital’s Johnny Wactor.
Wactor, who starred as Brando Corbin in the long-running soap, was killed more than three months ago when he confronted three thieves breaking into his car in Los Angeles.
There have been no arrests since, with cops only now releasing stills of the suspects and their getaway car.
Released by the LAPD Sunday, they show the suspects attempting to steal a catalytic converter from Wactor’s vehicle shortly before being confronted by the 37-year-old the night of May 24.
Following a brief exchange, the actor was shot in the chest by Suspect One of three, cops said. The trio were then filmed fleeing in a 2018 black, four-door Infinity Q50 with a tan interior.
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Cops are asking help from the public to identify suspects involved in the murder of General Hospital’s Johnny Wactor
There have been no arrests since the May 24 murder, with cops only now releasing stills of the three suspects and their getaway car (seen here)
‘Suspect One has a tattoo above the left eye and on the right cheek,’ cops wrote in the Sunday community alert – the first update in the case since May.
‘Suspect One to Three were attempting to steal a catalytic converter from the victim’s vehicle,’ the bulletin, comprised of just two photos, continued.
‘The victim confronted the suspects and was shot in the chest by suspect 1.
‘Suspect One to Three fled the area in a suspect vehicle, identified as a stolen 2018, black, 4 door, Infiniti Q50, with tan interior.
‘The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the three suspects involved,’ it concluded, as all three remain on the run.
Citizens with information pertinent to the case were urged to contact two detectives from the department’s Central Bureau Homicide handling the case, now at risk of growing cold some 72 days later.
Officers have yet to produce any other surveillance footage to go off of, just saying the crime is still being investigated.
The incident in question occurred near Pico Boulevard and Hope Street, around 3:25am that morning.
The car was a 2018 black, 4-door Infinity Q50 with a tan interior, which was stolen. The car is seen fleeing the scene after Wactor was gunned down
The intersection is located in city’s notoriously crime-ridden Downtown district, where the theft of car parts and automobiles has become commonplace.
This set the stage for the encounter between the budding star and the three offenders as he walked a coworker to her own car, as Wactor worked parttime at a nearby bar.
An argument ensued, after which the actor – who appeared in 164 General Hospital episodes – ended up shot in the chest once by one of the suspects, now confirmed to be so-called ‘Suspect One.’
Violent crime in Los Angeles, meanwhile, has been on the rise, recording a 2.9 per cent increase earlier this year from 2023.
The last time the force updated robbery statistics, thefts were up 9.5 per cent, as around 600,000 catalytic converters are stolen in the city each year.
Most cars are equipped with one converter but those with a dual exhaust system require two, whereas larger vehicles such as SUVs and trucks may carry more
As stated recently by the New York Times, stolen converters are commonly passed through ‘middlemen, smelters and refineries in the United States and overseas’ making them difficult to trace, and are often stolen in under a minute.
They cost around $1,000 brand-new.
Wactor, 37, played the character Brando Corbin on General Hospital from 2020 to 2022
Back in June, while standing in front of the spot where Wactor was gunned down on the 1200 block of Hope Street, Wactor’s friend Micah Parker called on DA George Gascón to push for the maximum sentence for the killers and for city officials to do their jobs.’
‘It’s the place to be because the city and the city’s leaders need to understand what soft-on-crime policies leads to,’ said Parker. ‘It leads us to right here. It’s important to us that this story remains top of mind for his family, for his friends because we loved him and he deserves justice.’
Gascón did not attend that rally, but his chief deputy Joseph Iniguez at the time told the participants he could not discuss how the case would be handled before arrests are made.
His former fiancée, Teresa Farrell, has also launched an to help ‘find [Wactor’s] killers’, asking members of the community for help in doing so.
‘If the person who did this, if you’re watching, I’m sorry, but you shot the wrong guy,’ she said in a post to Instagram through a steady stream of tears.
‘You can get a real job,’ she went on. ‘I know the job market’s hard but we’re all in it together. You don’t have to steal – especially take a life over it.’
She went on to assert that ‘human life is disregarded too easy,’ while insisting it is time as a community to ‘make changes.’
‘Maybe that’s what Johnny’s gift is for us,’ she said, urging politicians to take notice.
She said she met Wactor back in 2013 soon after she moved to LA, when he was working his way into the business.
He had made a great deal of headway since, before his life was cut short.
Mom Scarlett Wactor said that her son didn’t attempt to fight them or even stop the offenders from stealing, despite being shot in cold blood.
Johnny’s brother Grant further confirmed to DailyMail.com Johnny was shot in the chest as he came upon the suspects, explaining how he and his co-worker had to park about two blocks from the restaurant.
The pair were merely walking to their cars after they finished their shift, he said.
Cops’ search for the trio, all of whom were masked, remains ongoing. No other leads have been aired.
