The grieving mother of “General Hospital” star Johnny Wactor on Tuesday slammed her son’s “evil” killers, while calling her slain son a “hero” who protected a female co-worker from a gunman.
“This man is evil,” Scarlett Wachter told the “Today” show about the gunman who shot and killed her son over his car’s catalytic converter.
“I think they’re cowards. As a parent, you never think about burying your child,” said the mother, who has been rewatching her son’s favourite episodes of the show since his murder early Saturday morning.
The 37-year-old actor was on his way home from his bartending job with a female coworker around 3:30 a.m. in downtown Los Angeles when he was confronted by three thieves attempting to steal a catalytic converter from his car.
“Johnny thought he was being towed,” his mother recalled.
“He said, ‘Hey, they’re towing my car,’ and the individual looked up and he had a mask on. Johnny then stood in front of his coworker and was shot.”
Asked about her son’s final defense of a female friend, the grieving mother replied: “I would use the word ‘hero’. I’m just thankful that that person was safe and wasn’t alone when he died.”
Police confirmed that the perpetrators, all of whom were wearing masks, fled the scene in a separate vehicle. As of Tuesday, their identities had not been released.
No arrests have been made and the Los Angeles Police Department continues to search for suspects.
Johnny often worked extra bartending shifts between his acting jobs and had been working later than usual that night, his mother said.
He left the scene with three colleagues, two of whom went in a different direction before being apprehended by Wachter and the woman walking with him.
Wachter is best known for playing Brando Corbin in 164 episodes of the long-running soap opera General Hospital from 2020 to 2022. According to his IMDb profile:He subsequently left the show.
He also appeared in the supernatural drama series “Siberia,” the soap opera “Army Wives,” and an episode of “Criminal Minds.”
“All of us at General Hospital are heartbroken to hear of the untimely passing of Johnny Wactor. He was truly one of a kind and a joy to work with every day.” The ABC show wrote about X..
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones during this difficult time.”
In recent years, there has been a surge in thefts of catalytic converters across the country, which are sold on the black market for more than $1,000. Catalytic converters are car exhaust devices that turn toxic gases into safer exhaust fumes but contain valuable metals.
