A large crowd of protestors marched in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday to demand a safer city following the murder of General Hospital actor Johnny Wactor, who was shot and killed on May 25. They also expressed anger and frustration over the lack of progress in the case.
No arrests have been made since Wactor was gunned down by assailants who were trying to steal the catalytic converter from his car. Authorities have also failed to announce any suspects.
The 37-year-old actor was coming off a late-night bartending shift when he spotted the thieves near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Hope Street, near downtown. When he tried to stop them, one of the thieves pulled a gun and fatally shot the actor.
On Wednesday, protestors made their way to the steps of LA City Hall, shouting “Justice” for the murdered actor. Marchers included some of Wactor’s co-stars from ABC’s General Hospital, including actor Parry Shen. Among their demands was for the city to put out a minimum $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
“We want anyone with any information to come forward,” Micah Parker, a friend of Wactor’s, said on Wednesday, according to a KCAL News report.
“The second goal would be, because it’s two-fold, is just to shine the light on this overall crisis that we are having in Los Angeles, with violence, with crime. We want our city leaders, the mayor, the [district attorney], city council to at least admit that we have a problem so that we can address it and move forward with safer streets.”
Crime has soared in Democrat-controlled Los Angeles in recent years, due in large part to soft-on-crime DA George Gascon (D), who decriminalized large swaths of offenses.
For March, violent crime in Los Angeles rose 2.9 percent compared to March 2023, with robberies soaring by 9.5 percent, according to a Fox 11 report. Homicides were also up more than 28 percent for 2024 compared to the same time last year.
In 2020, the Los Angeles City Council voted to slash funding for the Los Angeles Police Department by $150 million in an effort to appease Defund the Police activists and protestors.
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