Anita Joy is detailing Johnny Wactorfinal moments.
In an exclusive interview with ET’s Kevin Frazier, Joy – who was a bartender at the Level 8 nightclub with the late actor – described his last moments with Wactor before him was killed for one gunshot wound to the chest. He was 37 years old.
The tragic incident happened in the early hours of Saturday, May 25, after Joy and Wactor’s Friday night shift at a club in downtown Los Angeles. The pair, along with two other employees, decided to head out to the car together, a typical group experience.
“It’s mainly men on our bar staff. There’s me and a few other women who are bartenders, but mostly men, big, strong guys,” Joy told ET. “We are all very adamant that no one goes out alone. We’re veteran bartenders, we’ve been doing this a long time, we know the risks… We always, always look out for each other like that.”
Around the corner, Joy and Wactor became separated from their other coworkers while parked in a different area.
“As we go up, everything is dark. There’s not much lighting there. There are big trees and stuff covering everything,” Joy explained. “We’re just filming, talking and having fun. As we walk to the back of my car, I think, ‘OK, that’s me.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I’m right in front of you.’ We parked at different times, so it was very random that he was right in front of me.”
It was then, seeing three men, that Joy and Wactor realized something was wrong and he put his hand in front of her to indicate that she should stay back.
“He’s a protector,” Joy said of her friend of eight years. “…He really cared about me. He would have done that to anyone, (even) if he didn’t know them.”
When they first assessed the situation, Joy and Wactor thought their car was being towed.
“He walked down the street between the two cars and as we see over the top of the car there’s a man down there and he has a big jack and all of a sudden we thought, ‘Oh, that’s not (being) towed,'” she said. remembered. “…Johnny was right in front of me and said, ‘Man, this is my car. What are you doing?’ I think we scared him as much as they scared us. I was a little behind Johnny, on the left, and he had both hands up.
“He stepped forward — no confrontation with the guy, no fists, he had his hands at his sides, palms open — and said, ‘Hey, man,’” Joy added. “I was looking down for a second and I heard a pop and the guy just shot him. and ran away or pushed Johnny or something, but they just shot him on close contact.”
With that, Wactor fell backwards onto Joy, “landing with the full weight of his body.”
“He turns me around and we both fall to the ground. When I turned around and grabbed him, I was like, ‘Honey, are you okay?’ Because I didn’t hear a fight, I don’t think there was any exchange of words on their part. He said, ‘No, shot,'” she recalled. “… There’s no time to think during it, but I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh my God, my friend is dying.’ It was like, ‘OK, he got shot, what’s next?’ I was thinking (he was shot) maybe in the leg or arm.”
It was only after Joy unbuttoned Wactor’s vest and shirt that she “noticed the blood.”
“I’m holding him and screaming for help because there’s no one else around, the streets are empty,” she said. “So a security guard from my work was crossing the street at the same time to go to his car and came running over immediately calling 911. I had a long denim jacket, so we took it off, 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.”
Throughout the ordeal, Joy said Wactor “was very soft” after saying his last words: “No, shot.”
“He was kind of drifting in and out of consciousness, but he kept letting out big sighs,” she said. “…I was yelling at him, like, ‘Johnny, stay with me! Johnny, stay with me!’…He was kind of gurgling…I was yelling at him to stay with me and that I love him and just beg him (to stay with me). Those were my last words to him.”
After Wactor’s death, Joy is dealing with an “incredible amount of anger.”
“This is something I’ve been struggling with through the rollercoaster of what I’m feeling… because there’s no need for him to get shot. He could have been pushed, kicked or shoved to get them out of there, but these men went in there with a loaded gun at their disposal, right by their side, ready to go,” she said. “…They had every intention of going and taking this $350 car part, whatever it is, stealing it from someone, and then being able to shoot them if they feel necessary… There’s a very, very dark place for people like that.”
Making the situation even more challenging is the fact that Joy considers the General Hospital star, who appeared on the soap opera as Brando Corbin, to be “literally one of the best men I’ve ever met in my life.”
“I love him so much and everyone loved him. I’m so grateful for him. He was such a goofy, kind person and he made everyone feel loved by him and seen by him,” she said. “…He just wanted so many good things for everyone all the time. There wasn’t a negative bone in his body…He was so kind; kindness just oozed out of him. He made everyone feel so good. It came naturally to him, that was his character.”
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