Teamsters 682 driver dies after being shot on the job, struck by a stray bullet in a shooting in Berkeley

By TIM ROWDEN

Editor

[UPDATE] Lonnell Lewis-Jones, 25, was charged last week with two counts of second-degree murder in a Feb. 22 shooting that killed two people, including Frank Langston, a member of Teamsters Local 682.

Police said Lewis-Jones opened fire on a car near Fay and Canyon drives, killing William Dortch, 27, who was one of three people in the car. Dortch died at a hospital that day.

Langston, who was employed by Raineri Ready Mix, was delivering a load of concrete for a Metropolitan Sewer District project about half a block away and was hit by a stray bullet. He died the next day.

[ORIGINAL STORY – Published March 1]

Berkeley, MO – Labor is mourning the loss of another member to senseless violence.

Frank Langston, 55, of Dellwood, a member of Teamsters Local 682, was struck by a stray bullet Thursday, Feb. 22, and died the next day.

Brother Langston was shot while delivering materials for his employer, Raineri Ready Mix, to a Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District project near Fay and Canyon drives in a residential area north of Airport Road and east of Interstate 170, near Airport Elementary School.

‘SENSELESS TRAGEDY’

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends,” Local 682 President Ed Kimbrell said. “It’s a tragedy. It’s senseless. You never expect something like this is going to happen when you’re just doing your job.”

Brother Langston is survived by his wife Sharon, three grown children, four granddaughters, Sharon’s own four children, as well as numerous friends and co-workers. He was a longtime member of the Kirkwood-based Crown Royal Motorcycle Club.

His co-workers at Raineri were stunned and saddened by his sudden death. Mike Kaemmerer, an attorney for the company, said Langston was a “hard worker, a good man and dedicated to doing his best. The fate he suffered is just not right for anyone.”

Brother Langston was on a ladder on a concrete mixer about 2:25 p.m., having just delivered a load of concrete to the MSD project when the shooting started.

Someone fatally shot a man later identified as William Dortch 27, of St. Ann as he sat in a car with another person.  A stray bullet traveled a half block and struck Langston in the hip. He died the next morning at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

SAD REMINDER

The shooting was a sad reminder of the murders last year of Gas Workers 11-6 members Alex Boschert and William Froelich, two Laclede Gas employees who were shot and killed on the job on April 20, 2017 in St. Louis City’s Hamilton Heights neighborhood when a gunman, apparently upset about his gas bill, walked up to them and started shooting.