Anita Joy, the co-worker of actor Johnny Wactor who was shot and killed by catalytic converter thieves, opened up to KNX News’ Jon Baird about Wactor’s final moments.
Joy said that in the early hours of May 25, she, Wactor, and two other people were walking to their cars after finishing their shift at the bar. When the other two people split off from Wactor and Joy, she said they took a left on Hope Street. She recalled that Johnny parked right in front of her car. At first, the two thought Johnny’s car was being towed.
“You know [how] you get that kind of rush of, like, if you catch somebody putting a parking ticket on your car and you're walking up to it like…’Oh, no, no, no! Don't do it! I'm here! I'm here to take my car,’” she said.
But when they got closer, that’s when they spotted someone.
“There was a man all dressed in black with a ski mask down on his knees with a big really big jack underneath of Johnny's car lifting it up,” she said. “I think that we startled them as much as they startled us because we were not expecting to see a thief situation. So all of a sudden, our alarms went off inside of ourselves and we were like, ‘Okay, this isn't a good situation.’”
Joy recalled Johnny putting his hand down in a way that motioned for her to get behind him.
“Johnny took literally one step forward towards the man with his hands by his sides, open palms and he just said, ‘Hey man, like this is my car, you know what's up?’” She said “There was no screaming and cursing or fight words or throwing punches or anything that it was very peaceful on his end. He was alarmed and everything but he wasn't coming after them…”
That’s when Joy said she heard a shot.
“Johnny's body came flying back towards me. I caught him with my shoulders and the man jumped in the car and sped off,’ she said.
Joy said the two men were at arm’s length of each other when the shots were fired.
She added the shot was fired “without warning.”
“We had no idea that they were even armed. It didn't seem like it was gonna be to this degree when we first walked up,” she said.
When Joy screamed for help, she caught the attention of the bar’s security guard, who she said was also going to his car. That’s when 911 was called.
Minutes after Johnny was put in the ambulance, Joy said her worst fears were confirmed.
“When I was talking to a police officer about what I had seen and what all just happened, another officer came up to him and spoke, like, basically a time stamp,” she said. “And I just recognized that from movies and shows and whatever. And I just looked at him and I said, don't tell me what, that's what that means. I was, like, ‘Do not tell me that's time of death. Like, please do not tell me that.’ And he just kind of looked at me out of the corner of his eye with like a sorrowful look and I just started screaming.”
Joy said she has faith in the LAPD and in the detective assigned to the case. But when it comes to describing the suspects, her description is limited to three men dressed in black. The other two men, she said, were in the getaway car during the shooting.
“There's no description. I didn't see any tattoos,” she said. “They were completely covered and then also, you know, there was no, it was like they were there and then they were gone.”
Joy said she was thankful she was there with him.
“At least I can attest to his final moments like I can put truth behind what actually happened in this situation where otherwise we would be just speculating,” she said
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Joy added that the bar they worked for, Level 8 did not make any comments about Wactor until almost a week later following public pressure. She said she and other co-workers complained for months over the lack of parking and security concerns.
“So they put out a statement saying that they are taking this seriously and they're going to start researching other methods to provide better safety for us and that in the beginning, they did offer security guards walking us to our cars and stuff like that,” she said “But the problem with that as well is recently we've been made to stay later to do deep cleaning, which is very dangerous.
There's been times that we've left there after a shift at 4 a.m.”
Wactor’s funeral will be held June 15, in Summerville, South Carolina, his mother told Fox News. She confirmed Joy would be in attendance.
Anyone with information about the suspects was urged to call the LAPD's Central Station at 213-486-6606.
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