Slain detective Doty starred in Fort Mill theater’s fundraising video

He hadn’t acted with the playhouse before. But a friend asked, so he helped.

“I knew when I asked Mike if he would be in it that he would say yes, because he was a friend that was always willing to help,” said Charley Faulkenberry. “Even more than that, I knew he was a very loving dad.”

Among the many tributes, condolences and shared sentiments online following the death of York County Sheriff’s Office Det. Mike Doty, who died after being shot while responding to a Jan. 15 domestic dispute call just outside York, comes an unusual video. It’s Doty as the Jack Nicholson character Col. Nathan Jessep from “A Few Good Men.”

Polly Adkins, board member for Fort Mill Community Playhouse, confirmed it’s Doty in the video on the theater group’s Facebook page.

“It is the same person,” she said.

Doty, who lived and worked in the Fort Mill area, wasn’t involved in playhouse productions prior to the video.

“He hasn’t been involved with the playhouse,” Adkins said. “He was friends with people who were involved, and that was why.”

Faulkenberry, a playhouse actor whose daughter and Doty’s godson became friends, said Doty supported the group because his godson, Shane Dowling, was an actor there. And a talented one.

“Mike was a supporter of so many things and so many people,” Faulkenberry said.

Faulkenberry also the the organizer of a group of online videos, including the one featuring Doty. The playhouse, performing out of numerous locations for almost four decades in town, is looking to raise money for a permanent home. The playhouse started a “Hamming it Up” campaign asking people to create and upload videos on the group’s Facebook page. People could then vote with their donations for their favorite video.

The videos are a mix of famous movie scene parodies, many of them involving hams.

Doty, along with his godson Shane and Faulkenberry’s daughter Bella, performs in the council chambers on the upper level of the Fort Mill Police Department, formerly Fort Mill Town Hall. The playhouse posted the video Jan. 6. Doty died Jan. 17.

Faulkenberry said friends are “still in shock” after the unbelievable loss. She recalls a man who exemplified traits like sacrifice and service, whether serving in law enforcement or not.

“That’s what you think about with his job, but that really was more than just his job,” Faulkenberry said. “That’s who he was.”

Faulkenberry is glad the video is there, if for nothing more than to show a personal side of Doty, a man who cared about his community, his family, his friends.

“We all have a great deal of respect for people who protect that line,” Faulkenberry said of law enforcement. “But there is that other side that people don’t always get to see.”

Doty's funeral is today at Calvary Church in Rock Hill. He will be laid to rest at Forest Hill Cemetery in Rock Hill.

This story was originally published January 20, 2018 at 8:45 AM with the headline "Slain detective Doty starred in Fort Mill theater’s fundraising video."