Major update in horrific murder of General Hospital star Johnny Wactor

Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying suspects involved in the murder of General Hospital’s Johnny Wactor.

Wactor, who played Brando Corbin on the long-running soap opera, was murdered more than three months ago when he came face-to-face with three thieves trying to break into his car in Los Angeles.

No arrests have been made since then, and only now have police released photos of the suspects and their getaway car.

The footage, released by the LAPD on Sunday, shows the suspects attempting to steal a catalytic converter from Wactor’s vehicle just before they were confronted by the 37-year-old man on the evening of May 24.

After a brief conversation, the actor was shot in the chest by one of the suspects, officers said. The trio was then filmed fleeing the scene in a black, four-door 2018 Infinity Q50 with a tan interior.

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“Suspect one has a tattoo above his left eye and on his right cheek,” officers wrote in Sunday’s neighborhood report. It’s the first update in the case since May.

“Suspects one through three attempted to steal a catalytic converter from the victim’s car,” the report, which consisted of only two photos, said.

The victim confronted the suspects and was shot in the chest by suspect 1.

Suspects one through three fled in a suspect vehicle, identified as a stolen black 2018 four-door Infiniti Q50 with a brown interior.

“The Los Angeles Police Department is asking the public for help in identifying the three suspects,” it concluded. The three are still at large.

Citizens with information relevant to the case were urged to contact two detectives from the department’s Central Homicide Bureau, who are handling the case. The case now, 72 days later, is in danger of becoming inactive.

Officers have not yet been able to provide any other surveillance footage to rely on, saying only that the crime is still under investigation.

The incident occurred near Pico Boulevard and Hope Street, around 3:25 a.m. that morning.

The intersection is located in the city center, a neighborhood known for its crime, where theft of auto parts and cars is a common problem.

This set the stage for the meeting between the rising star and the three perpetrators, as he escorted a colleague to her car, as Wactor worked part-time at a nearby bar.

An argument ensued, after which the actor – who appeared in 164 episodes of General Hospital – was shot once in the chest by one of the suspects, who has now been confirmed as so-called ‘Suspect One’.

Meanwhile, violent crime is on the rise in Los Angeles, with a 2.9 percent increase at the beginning of this year compared to 2023.

The last time police updated their robbery statistics, the number of thefts had increased by 9.5 percent.about 600,000 catalytic converters stolen in the city every year.

Most cars come equipped with one inverter, but cars with dual exhaust systems will need two, while larger vehicles like SUVs and trucks can carry more

As the New York Times recently reported, stolen converters are often passed through “middlemen, smelters and refiners in the United States and abroad,” making them difficult to trace and often stolen in less than a minute.

New they cost about $1,000.

In June, as Wactor’s friend Micah Parker stood outside the scene where Wactor was shot at 1200 Hope Street, he called on District Attorney George Gascón to seek the maximum sentence for the killers and to ensure that city officials did their jobs.

“This is the place to be because the city and the leaders of the city need to understand where soft-on-crime policies lead,” Parker said. “It brings us here. It’s important to us that this story stays in the memory of his family and friends because we loved him and he deserves justice.”

Gascón was not present at the meeting, but his deputy Joseph Iniguez told participants at the time that he could not discuss how the case would be handled before the arrests were made.

His former fiancée, Teresa Farrell, has also started an initiative to ‘help [Wactor’s] murderers’, asking members of the community for help.

“If you are looking at the person who did this, I am sorry but you shot the wrong man,” she wrote in an Instagram post as she continued to tear up.

“You can get a real job,” she continued. “I know the job market is tough, but we’re all in this together. You don’t have to steal — and you certainly don’t have to take your life for it.”

She further stated that “human life is too easily ignored” and stressed that it is time to “make changes” as a community.

“Maybe that’s Johnny’s gift to us,” she said, urging politicians to take notice.

She said she met Wactor in 2013, shortly after moving to LA, when he was just finding his way in the business.

Since then he has made much progress, until his life was tragically ended prematurely.

Scarlett Wactor, the rising star’s mother, said her son made no attempt to fight the perpetrators or even stop them from stealing, despite being shot in cold blood.

Johnny’s brother Grant confirmed to DailyMail.com that Johnny was shot in the chest when he encountered the suspects. He and his co-worker had to park about two blocks from the restaurant, he said.

He said the pair simply walked to their cars after their shift.

The police search for the trio, who were all masked, is ongoing. No other leads have been released.