Johnny Wactor’s former fiancée broke down in tears as she made an appeal to the General Hospital star’s killers after they ‘shot the wrong guy’. Wactor, a long time veteran of TV soap General Hospital, was shot dead Saturday in a Los Angeles when he confronted thieves breaking into his car. He was 37.
His heartbroken ex, actress Tessa Farrell (pictured), shared a video online slamming the ‘criminals’ who ended his life and called for stricter legislation to combat crime , which is continuing to skyrocket across the LA area. ‘If the person who did this, if you’re watching, I’m sorry, but you shot the wrong guy,’ Farrell said through her tears. ‘You can get a real job. 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 said ‘human life is disregarded too easy’ and argued that it is time we ‘make changes as a community’ and ‘support each other’, adding: ‘Maybe that’s what Johnny’s gift is for us, maybe he’s gifting that to all of us.’
Wactor was shot and killed Saturday around 3am when he interrupted three men stealing the catalytic converter from his car in Los Angeles, his family has said. He had left work at a rooftop bar with a co-worker when he saw someone at his car and thought it was being towed. He was shot by a masked suspect as he approached thieves. Three suspects drove away from the scene. Wactor was rushed to a hospital, where he died . There were no arrests as of late on Sunday.
Farrell, who says she met Wactor back in 2013 after she moved to LA, launched an appeal on social media Monday night asking the community to help ‘find these killers’. ‘These criminals can’t keep being on the street and they can’t keep being sent back and have no repercussions for their actions,’ Farrell said. ‘It’s not ok, this can’t keep happening. So many lives are being lost, just us not being smart – we have to be smarter as a community.’
Paying tribute to Wactor, whom she described as a ‘bright soul to this world’, Farrell shared how he was an advocate for justice and asked others to follow in his footsteps. ‘We can’t keep losing things like this because people are afraid to stand up and do what’s right. Johnny stood up and did what’s right all the time. So let’s be like Johnny and stand up and do what’s right,’ she said. She also spoke directly to Wactor, thanking him for the impact he has had on her life and revealing that ‘he will forever be a huge part of my journey as a human being’. Farell said: ‘Johnny if you’re watching from above, I love you very much and I’m very proud of you for the person you’ve become and the obstacles you’ve overcame. You’ve forever inspired in my work and what I do and I wouldn’t be here without what you taught me. So thank you, Johnny. I love you. I miss you. I hope those last moments were okay for you and I’m glad someone was with you.’
She then turned her attention to the person who witnessed his death saying, ‘I am so sorry you’re in this situation. ‘I can’t even imagine what it’s like to have been the one right there. You must be so scared and so sad. But if you need someone to talk to, you can talk to me.’ The actress also shared some insight into her relationship with Wactor, whom she claims ‘just lit up the room’ and despite his ‘human flaws’, ‘always sought to improve himself’. ‘We met in 2013 when I first moved out to Hollywood to pursue acting and he did too. We were friends at first and then kind of fell in love,’ Farrell revealed. ‘It was really fiery, like too fiery – we brought out the best in each other and then also the darkest parts of each other. Our lives were both forever changed.’
She shared how when the pair got engaged she wore a ring belonging to her grandparents, who had been married 50 years. Farrell, showing the ring in the video, added: ‘I never take it off.’ She shared how the couple had to ‘let each other go romantically’, claiming they were ‘just better as friends’, but said: ‘I will always love him.’ ‘But it was rushed. We were too young and kids and healing – but I’m just so proud of the man he’s become and it’s so sad that crime in LA had to do this.’ She added: ‘It’s so sad that, you know, that this is how he had to get taken from us because he cared so much about doing the right thing and earning things. He taught me that.’
Farrell, branding her former partner as an ‘awesome human being’, said that although they hadn’t seen each other in awhile she knew that Wactor had ‘been doing well’ and was ‘really loved’. She said that Wactor ‘found sobriety’ after their relationship, sharing how ‘I was able to guide him to AA and he was there for the rest of his life and sober and proud’. Farrell also said she was proud of Wactor for landing his ‘amazing’ role on General Hospital and described him as a ‘phenomenal actor’. ‘We stayed in touch after we broke up sometimes and I got to see him kind of prepare for some of his scenes for General Hospital and oh my god. This man was like a machine,’ she said of Wactor. ‘Johnny’s above now and looking down and I’m so happy that I think he found happiness before he went because that was his dream in life, is to be happy.’
Wactor appeared on over 160 episodes of General Hospital as the character Brando Corbin from 2020 to 2022. The actor was also a series regular on the 2013 NBC drama series Siberia, which lasted 11 episodes. He did multi-episode arcs on TV shows like The OA, The Passenger, Westworld and Hollywood Girl. His first break into television came in a three-episode guest role on the Lifetime series Army Wives. He had also branched out into producing; his IMDb page has three upcoming projects listed. Wactor also wrote a short film called Broken Riders. Wactor’s most recent work was in the horror anthology Dead Talk Tales: Volume I released earlier this year. Personally, his Instagram page often showed him engaging in extreme sports like rock climbing. Farrell, in her heartfelt Instagram post, also revealed that ‘before acting he was a swimmer, an amazing swimmer’.
Wactor’s murder comes just weeks after California was ranked among the top 10 most dangerous states in America. Violent crime in Los Angeles has been on the rise, with the LAPD recording a 2.9 per cent increase at the end of March 2024, compared to the same time last year. The LAPD reported Friday that, as of the end of April, the city’s rise in the number of murders in 2024 continued to decline and, as of April 27, was only 4.2 per cent above the number of murders reported at this time in 2023, NBC Los Angeles reported. The last time the force updated robbery statistics, at the end of March 2024, thefts were up 9.5 per cent, according to ABC 7. Around 600,000 catalytic converters are stolen each year. Most cars are equipped with one converter but those with a dual exhaust system require two. Larger vehicles such as SUVs and trucks may have more than two. According to the New York Times, stolen catalytic converters are passed through ‘middlemen, smelters and refineries in the United States and overseas.’ They can be stolen in under a minute and cost around $1,000 to replace.
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