Actor Johnny Wactor shot dead in Los Angeles

A long-time veteran of the TV soap, General Hospital, Johnny Wactor, has been shot dead in Los Angeles.

Wactor was killed on Saturday in a robbery that turned wrong.

He died at age 37.

The actor reportedly mistook masked thieves stealing his car for tow truck drivers and intervened before they opened fire, Dailymail reports.

Wactor was considered leaving his side job at a rooftop bar with a lady colleague at around 3:25 am Saturday in the region of West Pico Boulevard and South Hope Street, when he saw the three men, believing he was being towed.

The Los Angeles police department stated that one of three men, most of whom were wearing masks, shot Wactor before fleeing in a different vehicle.

Paramedics surely got to the scene right after and took him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The masked suspects remain at large and have yet to be identified or described.