Micah Zamir Dickerson, a 20-year-old Black/African American male from Bluefield, West Virginia, lost his life on June 7, 2024, after a shooting inside a moving vehicle in Mercer County. What began as a ride toward Bluefield turned deadly in the Chicory Road area outside the city. Dickerson was driving a Chevrolet when a firearm discharged from inside the vehicle, and the bullet struck him while the car was still moving.
After the shot, the vehicle came to a stop, and emergency responders became involved as the situation shifted from a sudden roadside emergency into a fatal shooting investigation.
Dickerson was taken to WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital, where he was later pronounced deceased. His obituary identified him as Micah Zamir Dickerson, born in Bluefield on November 4, 2003, and remembered as someone raised in Keystone, West Virginia. He had attended Mount View High School, had worked as a shipper at FedEx in Radford, Virginia, and had recently been hired to begin work at Lowe's. Those details gave a fuller picture of a young man whose life was still unfolding when the shooting abruptly ended it.
Investigators with the Mercer County Sheriff's Department determined that Scott Edward White, 37, of Bluefield, had been a passenger in the vehicle. According to reports attributed to Detective Cpl. M.T. Hatfield, a round was fired from a Ruger 9-mm pistol inside the moving vehicle, striking Dickerson as he drove. Authorities said the shooting was believed to have been accidental, but they alleged that the firearm had been handled in a neglectful manner. White was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter. A Ruger 9-mm pistol and two clips were reported found at the scene.
After his arrest, White was arraigned before Magistrate Susan Honaker, and bond was set at $3,000. He was then transported to Southern Regional Jail. The case did not remain only at the initial misdemeanor charge. In October 2024, a Mercer County grand jury indicted White on a felony charge of wanton endangerment and a misdemeanor charge of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Dickerson's death. Publicly available reports described involuntary manslaughter in West Virginia as carrying a possible sentence of up to one year in jail, while wanton endangerment carried a possible sentence of one to five years in prison.
The public record available through online news reports showed an arrest and later indictment, but I did not find a publicly available report confirming a trial outcome, plea, sentencing, or conviction in White's case. Based on the reporting that was available, authorities treated Dickerson's death as the result of a firearm discharge inside a moving vehicle, with White identified as the passenger accused of criminal responsibility because of the alleged careless handling of the gun. What remains clear is that Micah Dickerson's death turned an ordinary night near Bluefield into a criminal case, leaving his family and community to mourn a young life ended at only 20 years old.
