General Hospital alum Johnny Wactor’s cause of death has been revealed.
Wactor died by homicide at the age of 37, according to a coroner’s report viewed by Us Weekly. Wactor’s manner of death was confirmed as a gunshot wound to the chest.
Johnny’s mother, Scarlett Wactor, confirmed on Sunday, May 26, that the actor had died one day earlier, telling TMZ that his death “leaves a huge hole in the family’s heart.”
Johnny had been in Los Angeles with a colleague, whom he was allegedly trying to protect from his attackers. Johnny’s brother Grant Wactor later told the Daily Mail that Johnny had finished a bartending shift, walking toward the parking lot with a female coworker.
“We’re Southern, born and raised, and we would never let a female walk to their car by herself,” Grant told the outlet. “He came across them and he thought his truck was being towed. So he said something to the guys, like, ‘Hey, are you towing?’ And then once he turned around, he saw what was happening and he put his coworker behind him. And that’s when they shot him.”
Johnny was best known for playing Brando Corbin on ABC’s General Hospital. He is survived by his parents and siblings.
“I called him, three or four times, tried to text him. No one was 100% sure. That is what they had been told by friends of friends,” Grant told Extra on Tuesday, May 28. “I was calling the hospital, called the police as many times I could, had a hard time getting through until I finally got somebody to put me in touch with the detective. Once I got a hold of the detective, we were pretty confident that we were right.”
According to Grant, the Wactor family hasn’t been able to “make sense” of Johnny’s death. Grant further noted that finally realizing his brother was dead was “mostly shocking and not thinking that it was real.”
Johnny had previously been engaged to Tessa Farrell, who also was in disbelief over his death. (His mother later told TMZ that Johnny and his former fiancée had not been in touch in years.)
“If the person who did this, if you’re watching, I’m sorry, but you shot the wrong guy,” Farrell, who met Johnny in 2013, said via Instagram. “You know, you can get a real job, like, I know the job market’s hard, but we’re all in it together. You don’t have to steal, you know? Especially take a life over it, like, human life is disregarded too [easily] guys.”
She concluded, “We gotta make some changes as a community. We gotta support each other and come together. Maybe that’s what Johnny’s gift is for us, maybe he’s gifting that to all of us because he was full of gifts.”
