Police announced the arrests made in connection with the May shooting death of the former “General Hospital” actor, Johnny Wactor, Thursday afternoon.
Later in the day, the Los Angeles Police Department identified the suspects as 18-year-old Robert Barceleau, 18-year-old Leonel Gutierrez, 18-year-old Sergio Estrada and 22-year-old Frank Olano.
Barceleau, Gutierrez and Estrada have been booked for murder. Officers booked Olano as an accessory to the crime. Each will be held in lieu of a $2 million bond.
“I want to thank LAPD for their partnership and hard work on this case and for their continued efforts to keep Angelenos safe and to bring justice to victims of violence,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “Now, we must ensure that those who are responsible for this brazen and heinous act are held fully accountable.”
The arrests come just days after Wactor’s friends and family gathered at a downtown Los Angeles news conference to plead for the public’s help in finding the person or people responsible for the actor’s death.
“I was very excited but cautiously optimistic,” the actor’s mother, Scarlett Wactor, said after hearing about the arrests. “We still have to do preliminary hearings.”
The former “General Hospital” star, 37, was fatally shot on May 25 in downtown Los Angeles. He had just finished his bartending shift and was walking to his car on Hope Street and Pico Boulevard when he was shot and killed by suspects as they were attempting to steal his catalytic converter.
A little over a week ago, LAPD detectives released still security images of three suspects and a vehicle in connection with Wactor’s killing as they renewed their calls for information.
Frustration had been building among Wactor’s family, friends and community members as months went by without any information about the three suspects, leaving the killing unsolved.
In June, Wactor’s friend, Micah Parker, led a march in downtown Los Angeles to raise awareness of his friend’s death.
“We want anyone with any information to come forward,” Parker said.
The group started their march near the shooting scene and continued to Los Angeles City Hall, where they spoke out against violence and crime in L.A.
“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,” Parker said.
One of the suspects, Olano, had one prior conviction before the deadly shooting. He received a sentence of probation for felony vandalism during Wactor’s death.
Before being booked for Wactor’s death, police arrested Gutierrez for felony vandalism on July 19.
Barceleau was arrested twice after the alleged murder: once 11 days after the shooting for an assault with a deadly weapon involving a semi-automatic rifle and another time in July for a misdemeanor.
He was cited and released for the misdemeanor and released on bond for the assault with a deadly weapon charge.
Wactor’s mother expressed her frustration after hearing about the previous arrests.
“These guys are too brazen,” Scarlett Wactor said. “The law has enabled them to just be like they’re above it … I’m so grateful and thankful and hope that those previous things that they were arrested for maybe they can be stacked on top of what is happening now.”
She hopes the prosecutors advocate for the harshest penalties.
“They’re getting a chance at life that he doesn’t have,” Scarlett Wactor said. “They’re breathing air that they don’t deserve to breathe … If the death penalty was available, that’d be fantastic, in my opinion.”