Four people were arrested Thursday in connection with the fatal shooting of General Hospital actor Johnny Wactor earlier this year.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that multiple suspects were taken into custody as part of the investigation into Wactor’s death. “These search warrants resulted in four people being arrested and evidence recovered,” according to a statement from police.
Wactor, 37, was shot “without provocation” in downtown Los Angeles on May 25 at around 3:25 a.m. after his bartending shift at Level 8 bar/restaurant, police have said. As he walked to his car, he was confronted by three people who had the vehicle raised with a floor jack to allegedly steal the catalytic converter.
🚨 What we know about the arrests
The LAPD announced three suspects were arrested on suspicion of murder: Robert Barceleau, 18; Leonel Guiterrez, 18; and Sergio Estrada, 18. Another man — Frank Olano, 22 — was taken into custody and is accused of being an accessory to the crime.
On Aug. 15, ABC News confirmed through multiple law enforcement sources that the LAPD was executing search warrants in the murder of Wactor, who played Brando Corbin on General Hospital from 2020-22. It was anticipated that suspects would be detained.
According to the Los Angeles Times’s law enforcement sources, the investigation focused on Florencia 13 gang members who had been linked to other catalytic converter thefts in the area.
The outlet reported that a statement of probable cause used to obtain the warrants named Barceleau, Estrada and Gutierrez as suspects. Their fingerprints reportedly matched those taken from the floor jack used to try to steal Wactor’s catalytic converter.
A spokesperson for the LAPD has not yet responded to Yahoo’s request for comment.
🔍 Arrests follow family’s plea for help
On Aug. 13, Wactor’s family and friends held a news conference outside Los Angeles City Hall during which they made a public plea for help in the investigation.
“I’m asking that anybody that knows anything please come forward,” said his mother, Scarlett Wactor, according to the Associated Press. “It will help me and his brothers in our healing to know that they’ve been captured and convicted.” She said that “grief is my constant companion” as they await resolution.
“If they were to catch them, it would just be so much easier to have closure,” she told Extra.
Other attendees demanded more action from Mayor Karen Bass to combat crime in Los Angeles. The month Wactor was shot, it was reported that vehicle thefts in the city were “skyrocketing.” Catalytic converters, which are part of a car’s exhaust system and essential to controlling emissions, are a popular target for thieves.
On Aug. 4, police released images of suspects and asked for the public’s help with identifying them. One image showed a vehicle, described as a stolen 2018 black Infiniti Q50 with a tan interior, while a second image showed three individuals outside the car. “Suspect 1,” who has tattoos above the left eye and on the right cheek, was described as the gunman who shot Wactor in the chest.
➡️ What happened the night of Wactor’s homicide?
Wactor’s mother told Fox News Digital her son stayed late at work that night to clean the bar. When he and a co-worker were walking to their cars, Wactor saw his car jacked up and thought it was being towed. A suspect, who was wearing a mask, opened fire, hitting Wactor. The trio then fled in the Infiniti.
The coworker, Anita Joy, said it “happened in an instant.”
“Johnny kept his cool as he always did, simply stating that it was his car and for them to leave,” Joy wrote on Instagram. “Hands open to his sides in peace. Johnny was between me and the man who shot him — as I heard the shot ring into the night, he forcefully tumbled back into my arms and as I grabbed for him, I shouted, ‘Hunny you ok?!’ And he only responded, ‘Nope! Shot!’”
Joy said a security guard from work ran toward them while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. They used a denim jacket to try to stop the bleeding and performed CPR, she added. Wactor was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
