General Hospital actor Johnny Wactor was killed early Saturday morning when he encountered armed car thieves trying to steal part of the car, his brother claimed.
Wactor’s brother, Grant Wactor, told PEOPLE that his brother, who worked as a bartender, and a co-worker were walking to their vehicles after their shift around 3:25 a.m. on May 25 when the shooting happened.
Grant says colleagues were approaching their vehicles when his brother noticed his car was “raised or raised in some way. He thought he was being dragged.”
Grant says his brother soon realized they were “definitely not drag people,” he tells PEOPLE.
The three men were trying to steal the catalytic converter from the vehicle, LAPD Officer Jeff Lee told PEOPLE.
Grant says Wactor, 37, placed his body in front of his co-worker and had his hands up when he was shot.
“He did not oppose them,” he says. “He didn’t try to stop them. He was just trying to defuse the situation by taking a step back.”
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Grant believes that the men “didn’t expect someone to walk up to them, so they got scared. And there is nothing more dangerous than a coward with a gun in his hand.”
After the shooting, the men fled the scene in a vehicle, Lee said. Wactor was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Lee says “the suspects are still out there.” Grant says he hopes the killers are brought to justice.
“We certainly hope and pray that they are found and brought to justice,” he says. “We just want it done as quickly and correctly as possible.”
Johnny Wactor.
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“He was a good person,” Grant says of his brother. “They took him too soon and no one should be taken like this at all. He touched many people. He believed in his core values until the end and lived life to the fullest the way he wanted to. And he was happy doing it.”
Grant says the avid rock climber started doing theater in elementary school and moved to Los Angeles after graduating around 2007 to pursue his acting dream.
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“He was always very self-motivated, self-willed, a very hard worker,” Grant says. “He always wanted to do more, do better. I think that made him happy. He loved to make people laugh, make them laugh. Every fan he had, he loved doing it for them and making them happy.”
Wactor’s friend Chelsea White tells PEOPLE she met the actor more than a decade ago.
“Johnny, or Wactor, as I always called him, was one of those people who grabbed your attention as soon as he walked into a room,” she wrote in an email. “And sure, he was a great guy with a megawatt smile, but there was more to it than that. His soul and energy radiated warmth, and his inner goodness and silly country boy antics drew people to him. He made you feel loved. In a place like LA where authenticity is hard to come by, he was the antithesis. Whether he was acting or working bar shifts to cover the slow times, he gave it his all.”
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He added: “He’d give the shirt off his back to anyone who needed it. And I know he thought those people needed the money from that car part, he’d be happy to give it to them. But instead, they got a little bit further away and the warmth of this world for what, a couple of hundred dollars is colder and darker without Wactor, and these people need to know they robbed us all.”
Wactor, who was best known for his General Hospital in the role of Brand Corbin, also appeared in Army Wives, NCIS, The OA, Westworld, The Passenger, Station 19, Barbee Rehab, Siberia, Agent X, Vantastic, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Girl, Training Day, Criminal Minds and more.
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