Four arrested over fatal shooting of soap star

Four men have been arrested in connection with the killing of soap opera actor American Johnny Wactor.
Wactor, best known for his role as Brando Corbin on General Hospital, was fatally shot on May 25 after he approached thieves attempting to steal the catalytic converter from his car.
The television actor, who took bartender jobs in between projects, was walking a coworker to her car after a shift at a rooftop bar in downtown Los Angeles. Wactor, 37, initially thought his vehicle was being towed and used his body to shield his coworker when he realised the men were thieves, investigators said.
Los Angeles police on Thursday announced the arrests of four suspects. Robert Barceleau, Sergio Estrada, and Leonel Gutierrez, all 18, are charged with murder. They are each being held on $2 million bail. A fourth man, Frank Olano, 22, is charged with being an accessory to the crime.
The suspects are allegedly part of a local gang that targets the precious metals in catalytic converters, which can be sold to scrapyards for hundreds of dollars.
The suspects were identified through surveillance footage and fingerprints found at the crime scene, police said. Evidence was collected through search warrants carried out at multiple locations.
The arrests came the day after Wactor’s loved ones held a press conference ahead of what would have been the actor’s 38th birthday. “Grief is my constant companion,” his mother, Scarlett Wactor, said on Wednesday. “I can’t wish him a happy birthday on August 31, I can’t ask if he’s coming home for Christmas, I can’t ask how his day went.”
Wactor was shot without provocation, according to authorities. Anita Joy, the friend and colleague who Wactor was escorting on the night of his death, said the actor had kept his hands “open to his sides in peace” when he confronted the thieves.
“[Me and] my friend of 8 years went from laughing together, working side by side, leaving our bartending shift and walking to our cars, to him dying in my arms in the streets of DTLA [downtown Los Angeles] in the dark hours of 3 am,” Joy wrote on Instagram after the killing.
The actor’s brother, Grant, 29, said at the time: “He was a great man, brother, son, friend … He didn’t deserve this. He worked hard and loved harder. One of a kind and he will be missed.”
Wactor played his character on General Hospital, the longest-running soap opera on American television, from 2020 to 2022. He also had appearances in the shows Westworld, Criminal Minds, NCIS and Station 19.