{"id":101166,"date":"2024-05-31T02:15:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T02:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/johnny-wactors-co-worker-on-the-actors-final-moments-before-he-died\/"},"modified":"2024-05-31T02:15:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T02:15:11","slug":"johnny-wactors-co-worker-on-the-actors-final-moments-before-he-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/johnny-wactors-co-worker-on-the-actors-final-moments-before-he-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Wactor&#8217;s Co-Worker on the Actor&#8217;s Final Moments Before He Died"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span>Anita Joy is detailing\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/people\/johnny-wactor\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Johnny Wactor<\/a><span>&#8216;s final moments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In an exclusive interview with ET&#8217;s Kevin Frazier, Joy &#8212; who <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/johnny-wactors-co-worker-anita-joy-speaks-out-after-he-was-killed-shielding-her-from-gunfire-226351\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bartended at Level 8 night club with the late actor<\/a><span>\u00a0&#8212; described her last moments with Wactor before he <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/johnny-wactor-general-hospital-star-killed-while-shielding-co-worker-from-gunfire-report-226201\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was killed<\/a><span> by a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/general-hospital-star-johnny-wactors-official-cause-of-death-revealed-226306\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gunshot wound to his chest<\/a><span>. He was 37.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The tragic incident happened in the early hours of Saturday, May 25, after Joy and Wactor&#8217;s Friday night shift at the club in downtown Los Angeles. The duo, along with two other employees, decided to walk out to their cars together, a typical experience for the group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;It&#8217;s mostly men on our bar staff. There&#8217;s me and a couple of other ladies that are bartenders, but mostly guys, big strong guys,&#8221; Joy told ET. &#8220;We&#8217;re all very adamant of nobody walks out alone. We&#8217;re veteran bartenders, we&#8217;ve been doing this for a long time, we know the risks&#8230;\u00a0We always, always took care of each other that way.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At the street corner, Joy and Wactor split from their other co-workers as they were parked in a different area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;As we&#8217;re walking up, everything is dark. There&#8217;s not really a lot of lighting there. There are big trees and stuff covering everything,&#8221; Joy explained. &#8220;We&#8217;re just shooting the s**t, talking and having fun. As we walk up to the back of my car, I&#8217;m like, &#8216;OK this is me.&#8217; He&#8217;s like, &#8216;Oh, I&#8217;m right in front of you.&#8217; We parked at different times, so it was very random that he was directly in front of me.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It was then, seeing three men, that Joy and Wactor realized that something was amiss and he put his hand in front of her to indicate that she should stay back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;He&#8217;s a protector,&#8221; Joy said of her pal of eight years. &#8220;&#8230; He genuinely just cared about me. He would&#8217;ve done that with anyone, [even] if he didn&#8217;t know them.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When they first assessed the situation, Joy and Wactor thought his car was being towed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;He walked down onto the street between the two cars, and as we see over his car, there&#8217;s a man down there and he has a big jack and all the sudden, we were like, &#8216;Oh, this is not [getting] towed,'&#8221; she recalled. &#8220;&#8230; Johnny was directly in front of me and he&#8217;s like, &#8216;Man, this is my car. What are you doing?&#8217; I think we startled him as much as they startled us. They kind of scrambled. I was right behind Johnny to the left a little bit and he had both hands up.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;He stepped forward &#8212; not confronting the guy, not having fists, he had his hands up to his sides, open palms &#8212; and he&#8217;s like, &#8216;Hey, man,'&#8221; Joy added. &#8220;I was like looking down for a second and I hear a crack and the guy just shot him. They all jumped into the car and they took off. It was just instantaneous&#8230;\u00a0The guy easily could of just jumped back into the car and sped off or shoved Johnny or something, but they just shot him close contact.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>With that, Wactor fell backwards onto Joy, &#8220;tumbling with his whole bodyweight.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;He turns me around and we both go toppling towards the ground. As I turn and grab him, I was like, &#8216;Honey, are you OK?&#8217; &#8216;Cause I didn&#8217;t hear a fight. I don&#8217;t think there were any words exchanged from their side. He went, &#8216;Nope, shot,'&#8221; she remembered. &#8220;&#8230; There&#8217;s no time to think during this, but I wasn&#8217;t feeling like, &#8216;Oh my God, my friend is dying.&#8217; This was like, &#8216;OK, he got shot, what&#8217;s next?&#8217; I was thinking [he was shot in] maybe a leg or arm.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It was only after Joy unbuttoned Wactor&#8217;s vest and shirt that she &#8220;noticed the blood.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;I am holding him and screaming my head off for help, because there&#8217;s no one else around, the streets are bare,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Then a security from my work was crossing the street at the same time to come to his car and he came running over immediately calling 911. I had a long denim jacket, so we took that off and we wrapped it around him and tied it around the wound to try to stop the bleeding and then [the security guard] tried CPR on him.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Throughout the ordeal, Joy said that Wactor &#8220;was just very limp&#8221; after he said his last words: &#8220;Nope, shot.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;He was just kind of flickering in and out of consciousness, but he kept making big gasps,&#8221; she said. &#8220;&#8230;\u00a0 I was screaming at him, like, &#8216;Johnny, stay with me! Johnny, stay with me!&#8217;&#8230; He was just kind of gurgling&#8230; I was screaming at him to stay with me and that I love him and just begging him [to stay with me]. Those were my final words to him.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In the wake of Wactor&#8217;s death, Joy is dealing with an &#8220;incredible amount of anger.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;That&#8217;s something that I have been battling as far as my rollercoaster of what I&#8217;m feeling&#8230; because there&#8217;s no need for him to be shot. He could have been shoved or kicked or pushed away for them to get out of there, but these men went out there with a loaded gun at their disposal, right by their side ready to go,&#8221; she said. &#8220;&#8230; They had the full intention of going and getting this $350 car part, whatever it is, stealing that from someone, and then being able to shoot them if they think necessary&#8230; There&#8217;s a really, really dark place for people like that.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Making the situation even more challenging is the fact that Joy considers the\u00a0<\/span><em><span>General Hospital\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>star, who appeared on the soap as\u00a0Brando Corbin, to be &#8220;literally one of the best men I&#8217;ve ever met in my life.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;I just love him dearly and everyone did. I&#8217;m just grateful for him. He was such a goofy, kind person and made everybody feel loved by him and seen by him,&#8221; she said. &#8220;&#8230; He just wanted so many good things for everyone all the time. There wasn&#8217;t a negative bone in his body&#8230; He was just so kind; kindness just oozed out of him. He made everybody feel so good. It just came naturally to him, that was his character.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span>RELATED CONTENT:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/interview-johnny-wactors-co-worker-anita-joy-details-the-actors-final-moments-before-his-tragic-death-226456\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anita Joy is detailing\u00a0Johnny Wactor&#8216;s final moments. In an exclusive interview with ET&#8217;s Kevin Frazier, Joy &#8212; who bartended at Level 8 night club with the late actor\u00a0&#8212; described her last moments with Wactor before he was killed by a gunshot wound to his chest. He was 37. The tragic incident happened in the early [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22,174,1547,8111,20],"class_list":{"0":"post-101166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-deaths","9":"tag-entertainment-tonight","10":"tag-interviews","11":"tag-johnny-wactor","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}