General Hospital star, Jonny Wachter, was shot to death in downtown Los Angeles last weekend upon finding mast criminals attempting to steal his catalytic converter. The shocking incident has shined a glaring spotlight on the crime epidemic plaguing the city and has prompted Jonny's loved ones to speak out about the tragic side effects of soft on crime policies. In this episode, we talk with Jonny's close friend and fellow actor, Micah Parker, about what took place that night in downtown LA and what city officials must do to prevent future tragedies like it. I'm DailyWire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, June first, and this is an extra edition of MorningWire. At around 3:00 AM in the morning on Saturday, May 25th, Johnny Wachter, an actor best known for his role as Brando Corbin in General Hospital, was leaving a late bartending shift in downtown Los Angeles with his co-worker Parker Anita Joy, when the two came across men wearing masks attempting to steal the catalytic converter from Johnny's vehicle. When Johnny peacefully questioned what the men were doing, one of the suspects fatally shot Johnny in the chest. Joining us now to discuss The Tragedy is Johnny's friend and fellow actor, Micah Parker.

Micah, thank you so much for talking with us.

Oh, absolutely, John. Thank you so much for just shedding some light on this story.

Yeah, it's horrific. I'm sure you're much more upset than us, but it's really upsetting. Yes. First, what would you like us to know about your friend Johnny?

Oh, man. Johnny Wachter was truly... He was the best man I've probably ever known and probably will ever know. He's everything that's great about a man. He's selfless, he's bold, he speaks with honesty, he speaks with integrity. He's always that guy that would have his hand up if anything needed to be done, whether it was, Hey, man, I need help moving. Hey, man, I I got to have this really tough conversation. Can you spare a few minutes just to talk through it with me? As an actor, anytime I needed to shoot a self-tape audition or, Hey, I need to run lines for this thing, he said, Hey, I only have five minutes, but I'm going to give it to you. He was the guy that would stand up and be there for you. I know it could sound cliché. This is the things you say when somebody dies, but Johnny really would give you the shirt off his own back. I mean, He gave you his time, he gave you his heart. I've said this quite a few times since his passing, that if you knew Johnny Wachter, if only for a moment, you were his friend, and you knew him for a lifetime.

That's just the guy that he was.

From the details that we know about what took place, he was attacked here without trying to actually take any aggressive action toward the criminals, correct?

Correct. From my understanding, he thought his car was being towed. He was bartending downtown LA, and he stayed late to do a deep clean, which is not surprising to me that he would do that. And he was walking a young lady to her car, and when he saw his car, he saw some guys with a floor jack on it, and he thought they were towing his car. So he said, Hey, man, that's my car. Are you towing me? Just kept his cool. And one of the guys looked up. He saw they had a mask on. He realized in that moment something was wrong. So he stepped in front of his friend, his colleague, and they pulled out a gun and they shot him. Cowardly, a cowardly act. To me, this is what happens when you, number one, are soft on crime. And that's a broad topic. But in LA, it's enabling. It's enabling criminals. So from the smallest thing, whether it's you can steal this amount from a store, you can do this, do that, we're not going to prosecute you. We're going to let you out with zero bail. This emboldens these criminals. And this theft of stealing a catalytic converter, that's a brazen act.

That's something you do if you know you're going to get away with it. And what happens is you enable this up to this point, and then things take a turn. And that's what happened. My friend is now dead because of these... Well, number one, because of these cowards. Number two, I feel like the city has failed him and has failed every citizen in Los Angeles.

How could a tragedy like this be avoided going forward?

You have to hold criminals responsible. If high fives and hugs and rainbows could keep this city strong and could keep this city safe, it would be paradise. But sometimes love has to be tough. And tough love means holding people accountable for their actions. I said this in a video posted on Instagram yesterday that my faith calls on me to forgive these guys, but that does not spare them from the consequences of their actions here on Earth. If you hold criminals responsible, that becomes a deterrent. That's number one. The second thing is, like I said, this is a brazen act. This is not something someone would do if they felt like the police would be right around the corner. It's amazing to me that someone could perform an act like this in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. Yes, it was the wee hours of the morning, but that's a densely populated area. How are there not cops on patrol close by where they could hear a saw going off in the middle of the night. I mean, it's absolutely unacceptable. And the fact that there is no arrest yet, there's no suspects. I haven't seen a picture of a suspect.

I haven't seen surveillance video. Where is all that information? You want the help of the public, but I've not seen a single shred of a lead. So I'm calling on everyone to put pressure on the city of Los Angeles law enforcement in Los Angeles, the mayor's office, city council, to keep the pressure on them to not stop until these cowards are brought to justice. His mom said she does not want this to go to a cold case, obviously. And we know that that's sometimes what happens when things go on too long, so we have to keep the pressure on them.

Now, you've lived in Los Angeles. From your experience, have you personally seen this situation deteriorate over the last few years?

Absolutely. During the pandemic, my wife and I actually left LA for a couple of years. We left because it was getting dangerous then. We've recently moved back about eight, nine months ago and have noticed a huge difference. Even in eight, nine months, I feel like we've seen it deteriorate. And what's so infuriating and confusing and gaslighting is that leadership will tout, Oh, there's been a decline in violent crime. But You will not find one person in the city of Los Angeles that would describe this city as safe. We don't feel it. We don't feel a decline in crime. We don't feel that it's becoming safer. So if you take just a ride around Los Angeles, it's hard to go a few blocks without seeing something alarming. I was speaking the other day with a friend, and I just said, I think the leadership needs to take a tour around the city once again. They need to go for a drive, and I'll take them on a drive, and I'll show them what's happening in their city because it seems like they're either blind to it or they are purposefully ignoring it.

Now, I don't know if you know the story of Daily Wire, which produces this program. We moved out of LA in part because of this crime. We had to board up our windows the last few months with COVID lockdowns and the chaos happening. And it really just reached a breaking point for the company.

Yeah. I mean, it's so infuriating, man. And everyone that I'm talking to. And Johnny and I talked about it. And even was talking to a friend maybe a week before he died about getting put in these tough positions where you got to stand up for yourself, you got to stand up for the people you're with. But It's dangerous, and then this happens. Yeah.

And all he did was move to protect. He didn't even move to take action against them. That's incredible.

Exactly. I do want to say, Johnny was a selfless hero during life, and he went out like a hero. He is an example for us all. In the Book of John, it says, Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends. Johnny fulfilled that. And he's an example to all of us. Gone too soon. Yeah.

It's powerful stuff, man. Hey, look, I'm genuinely sorry. You lost a friend.

Yeah, I appreciate that, man.

And really powerful statement you're making. Thank you for making the rounds on all these different outlets to make sure that this information and this really this alarm is sounded so that other people can hear it.

Yes. And I'm going to keep you posted on what's going on because myself and a core group of friends, there's four of us, along with Anita, who is the girl who Johnny protected, we're starting to take some action. And I'm no activist. I've never tried to be a political activist. I'm not a big protest guy, but we're going to make some noise for this in the coming weeks, months. And so I just want to keep you all posted on what's going on. We're going to do a run for Johnny. He was a big jogger. So we're going to go on his running path. We're going to get some press there. We're going to culminate into a big march from where he was shot to City Hall. And we have a lot of people that are very interested in helping this. I want to really, really just make some noise with this. So thank you for playing a part in that.

Well, we hope many people hear your message. Micah, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much.

That was Micah Parker, and this has been an extra edition of WarningWire.