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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff and agencies

Los Angeles police arrest four suspects over killing of actor Johnny Wactor

Man hugs woman as people hold up signs of victim
A vigil for Johnny Wactor outside city hall in Los Angeles. Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP

Police have arrested four suspects in the fatal shooting of Johnny Wactor, the actor best known for his role on General Hospital.

The four suspects were arrested in Los Angeles, and range in age from 18 to 22. Three of the suspects were booked on arrest warrants for murder and the fourth was booked as an accessory.

A news release from the LAPD said officers conducted search warrants that led to the arrests early on Thursday morning and recovered additional evidence. No further details have been shared about the arrests or the evidence.

Wactor was shot and killed on 25 May, after he allegedly interrupted thieves stealing the catalytic converter from his car in the early morning. He was 37.

Police said Wactor had left work at a rooftop bar with a coworker when he saw three men who had hoisted his car. Police said one of them fired at him without provocation and killed him.

The men fled in a car and Wactor was taken to a hospital where he was later declared dead, police said. The county medical examiner said Wactor died from a gunshot wound to the chest and ruled the death a homicide.

Police asked for the public’s help in August with identifying the suspects, releasing surveillance images of them and their getaway car.

Wactor, from South Carolina, appeared on General Hospital from 2020 to 2022. During that time he appeared in more than 160 episodes of the long-running soap opera, where he played the character Brando Corbin.

He also appeared in a variety of films and TV series, including Station 19, NCIS, Westworld and the video game Call of Duty: Vanguard.

His agent, David Shaul, said after Wactor’s death that he “always kept his chin up and kept striving for the best he could be”.

At a news conference earlier in the week, his mother described the feeling of losing him.

“Grief is my constant companion,” Scarlett Wactor said. “I can’t wish him happy birthday on August 31 – he would have been 38. I can’t ask if he’s coming home for Christmas. I can’t ask how his day went.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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