Jeremy Ryan Peters, a 41-year-old White/Caucasian male from Whitesville, West Virginia, was killed late on the night of December 30, 2021, after violence erupted inside Terry’s Café in Boone County. What began as an argument between Peters and Kevin Scott Dickens, a man from Rock Creek, turned into a physical fight. West Virginia State Police said they were called to the café at about 11:30 p.m. for a reported shooting, and when troopers arrived, they found Peters dead from a gunshot wound.
Investigators said Peters and Dickens had been involved in a dispute that escalated from words into a fight and then into gunfire. According to police accounts reported after the shooting, Dickens allegedly shot Peters during the confrontation and then fled the scene.
The killing shocked the small Whitesville community, where the café was a familiar local gathering place and the sudden violence turned an ordinary night into the scene of a homicide investigation.
After leaving Terry’s Café, Dickens was found in Raleigh County. Members of the West Virginia State Police Special Response Team took him into custody, and he was charged with murder. Jail and news reports identified him as Kevin Scott Dickens, 53, of Rock Creek, and he was held at Southwestern Regional Jail after his arrest. Early reports described the investigation as active and ongoing while authorities continued building the case around what happened inside the café that night.
The case later moved into Boone County court. Kevin Dickens went to trial in connection with Peters’ death, but the proceedings were delayed and complicated. Reports from early 2023 said the first trial was interrupted after members of the jury contracted COVID-19, leading to a mistrial. A new trial was then started with a new jury, but it also faced delays, including interruptions tied to juror availability. Publicly available reporting confirmed that Dickens was being tried for murder in the shooting death of Jeremy Peters, though the online sources located did not provide a clear final verdict or sentencing outcome.
Jeremy Peters’ obituary identified him as Jeremy Ryan Peters and said he died in Whitesville on December 30, 2021. He was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on August 24, 1980, and was remembered by family after his death. His killing remains documented in public reports as the result of a late-night argument and fight that turned fatal, with Kevin Scott Dickens named as the suspect arrested and charged with murder.
