Chomp!

By Ron Aiken
March 21, 2014

LaBrasca’s

It is with a heavy heart that Chomp! comes to you this week.

In the space of a month, one of my go-to pizza places – LaBrasca’s (it satisfies both adults, teens and kids alike; a rare feat) – experienced two tragic losses of young men taken before their time that seem almost unbelievably cruel.

First, 39-year-old William Will Drafts, a Dreher High School graduate and18-year employe of LaBrasca’s, died unexpectedly from a heart attack onJan. 3. Known and admired by countless patrons over the years, Will’spassing was a tough one for staff and customers alike.

Will Drafts

And yet before his passing could even sink in, two-and-a-half year employee Brandon Ratliff, 31, was shot and killed on Feb. 2 while trying tobreak up a fight outside The Cockpit Bar & Grill at 214 BerryhillRoad in the St. Andrews area. Police still are looking for a suspect inthe homicide.

Brandon Ratliff

In the space of 30 days, LaBrasca’s lost 20 years of experience.

It’s been tough, said owner Brett Wilson. I bought this place in 1998, and Will was here when I bought it. You come in and there’s days and you want to share something with them and they’re not here. It’s difficult.

Everybody is very saddened. The regulars knew Will, very well, and people had just started getting to know Brandon because he’d recently started working the front counter.

People were saddened on both accounts. Both really shocked me. I know I had grown men come in an see Will’s pic and break down crying here in the store, and then to have something terrible happen to Brandon, we haven’t gotten over it.

We’re all shocked and devastated. Both were super-terrific people, the kind of people you want to know, want to come to work and see.

Wilson said what’s also been tough is been that no one has come forward with information about the shooter in the dispute outside the bar that other people had to have seen or known about.

It’s getting really frustrating, Wilson said.

There aren’t any memorial funds set up for Will or Brandon, but if you can, go by LaBrasca’s and patronize the place they called home. Make a point of doing it and do it. We all are guilty from time to time of celebrating the new places and forgetting the old, of making beelines to the trendy and neglecting the tried-and-true, so if you haven’t been to LaBrasca’s in a while, do so. They’d appreciate it and so would Chomp!.

And if you have any information or know someone who does about Ratliff’s murder, contact the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at 785-8230 or CRIMESTOPPERS at 1-888-CRIME-SC. Anyone wishing to provide information anonymously may do so online at lexingtonsheriff.com by clicking the Crime Tip link. If you want to offer your condolences online, go to LaBrasca’s Facebook page at facebook.com/Labrascas/timeline.