‘So many customers in tears.’ Bluffton restaurant mourns shooting victim found in ditch

Sean Aiken didn’t just make a sandwich, he made an impression.

Regular customers at the Which Wich in Bluffton, where Aiken had worked before he was shot and killed last week at the age of 28, knew the Seabrook man for his uplifting spirit.

They remembered him because he did anything and everything possible to brighten their days, according to co-workers.

This included singing, dancing, laughing and even just listening to them.

As news broke last week that Aiken’s body had been found in a ditch near where he lived, Facebook commenters skipped the usual arguments about crime and guns and politics that have come to be expected after a life has been taken by violence.

Instead, they told stories about how happy Aiken had made them.

“He was the main reason I frequented Which Wich,” one Facebook user says. “He was always so happy and smiling. We’d have small talk while I was waiting for my food. Just a positive light in this world.”

In the past week, a steady stream of customers have come into Which Wich to tell Aiken’s co-workers just how much Aiken meant to them.

They have come bearing cards, donations and condolences.

“I have had so many customers in here in tears,” said franchise owner Lauren Curtis. “He knew everyone’s names. He knew everyone’s order. He was always singing, having fun and joking around.”

Curtis said he was more than just the manager of her restaurant.

He was a friend.

Aiken had worked at the sandwich shop for more than two years and during that time he had become an important part of his co-workers’ lives.

“When my son was little, he would only eat food Sean made,” Curtis said. “One of my son’s first words was ‘Sean.’”

Aiken likely lived a very different life from many of his Bluffton customers.

He was raised on the “other side” of the Broad River in Seabrook, a small, tight-knit community in rural Beaufort County, where he had lived his entire life. While attending high school at Battery Creek, he came out to his friends and family as gay. He was confident, fun-loving and universally known for always and proudly being himself.

Aiken didn’t own a vehicle, so he traveled 45 minutes to work each day by hitching a ride with cousins. He usually arrived at 7 a.m. for a shift that didn’t start until 10 a.m.

Anthony Jenkins — Aiken’s cousin, friend and co-worker at Which Wich — was amazed by the connection Aiken had with his customers.

“They just had love for him,” he said. “That is respect that I will never forget.”

Aiken’s positivity and spirit, he said, continued long after the workday was over.

“He made sure that everybody was happy and everybody was smiling,” Jenkins, who is now a nurse, said. “Some mornings, I’m cheerful. Some mornings, I’m down. How do you find someone like Sean that wakes up every morning with a smile?”

Aiken stopped by Jenkins’ house on July 17, the day before he was killed, to hang out and do some laundry.

That night was the last time Jenkins would see his cousin alive.

It was Jenkins who discovered Aiken’s body — early the next morning in a ditch on Seabrook Center Road, where a majority of Aiken’s and Jenkins’ family live.

It was only three days after Aiken’s birthday.

“If I could have done more as a nurse,” he said Thursday about finding his cousin. “I swear, I wish I could have did more.”

Aiken was buried at Seabrook Cemetery on Wednesday. His friends and loved ones continue to grapple with the reality of his violent death.

“My cousin was loved,” Jenkins said. “There is no one who had hatred for him but the people who took his life.”

Aiken was an important part of their extended family, he said.

“A piece of that is gone,” Jenkins said.

As of Thursday afternoon, no one has been arrested in connection with Aiken’s murder.

Deputies with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office found evidence of the shooting at a residence near where Aiken’s body was discovered.

“This case remains under investigation,” Capt. Bob Bromage said Thursday.

He urged anyone with information to contact Cpl. Jennifer Snider at (843) 255-3421 or 1-888-274-6372 to remain anonymous and for possible reward.

There is one memory that Jenkins says keeps running through his head.

“We were in the back of the store before it opened,” he said of Aiken and other Which Wich co-workers. “We were just laughing, joking and all dancing.

“”The boss came in and she was like, ‘What are you doing?’ We were trying to make her dance as well. It was just a cheerful moment for all of us. It will be a memory I will never forget.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 6:57 PM.