Remembering York County Sheriff’s Office Detective Mike Doty: The man behind the badge
“He was riding with me in my car and we were listening to my music and at the stoplight he got out, did a little dance and got back in. He didn’t care what other people thought, he just made you laugh all the time.” This is just one of the many memories that Patricia Ziegler holds close to their heart in remembrance of her brother Mike Doty.
Doty, a 37-year-old York County Sheriff’s Office detective, died on Jan. 17 after being shot on Jan. 16 in what was reported as an ambush by a domestic violence suspect just outside of York.
Thousands gathered on the morning of Jan. 22 to honor and mourn the fallen officer. Amongst the crowd were police officers from across America, family, friends and countless others who came together at a south Charlotte church to pay their respects.
Diana Dowling, Doty’s aunt, was shocked at the amount of people who came to say goodbye to her nephew. “I was blown away the other day when they had the funeral. I was told there were well over six thousand people. It was packed. It was packed and that was a large church,” she said.
Kathy Queen, Doty’s mother, was not only surprised at the amount of people within the church, but also the amount of adults and children standing on the streets seeing the procession as it traveled from Charlotte to Rock Hill.
“Cars stopped on the interstate and got on the center divide when they realized who was coming by, just so they could stop and put their hands over their hearts. There were people weeping on the side of the road…”
She continues, “That outpouring of love from the community, all of his family, we all just felt so loved to the point where if we could all live that way, we could all have funerals where the whole place stops to celebrate your life, and that was Mike. He never did anything with expectations, he never did it with any reason other than it was the right thing.”
In the days since saying goodbye to Doty, his family remember the man behind the badge and the impact he made on the lives of others.
Dowling recalls a moment that changed not only her and Doty’s life, but the life of a two-month-old boy.
Dowling recalls sitting in a Starbucks having coffee with her mother in Las Vegas when she received a call from the Department of Social Services about a baby with some complications who was in need of a home.
Dowling, a 55-year-old Special Education retiree at the time, was not looking to raise another child. However, she made the choice to take the child to all of his appointments, to make it easier on the social worker.
It was not until she took her now 27-year-old daughter to see the baby that she considered adoption. Dowling said, “She was 13, and I took her to the shelter where the baby was and she said, ‘Mommy please can we take him home, mommy please,’ and I told them ‘tell the caseworker I’ll be back tomorrow to take him.”
It was not until she received the call from Doty, however, that she felt sure of her decision.
“No sooner had I gotten home and Mike Doty called me. He was living back here and he was 23 years old and he said, ‘Aunt Diana, if you decide to adopt that baby, I will be his father.’ Now find me another 23-year-old man who would make that kind of commitment,” she said.
From that point on, Doty lived up to the role of father in not only Shane’s life, but in the lives of other children through his work with the Law Enforcement Officer Narcan (LEON) program where he acted as the coordinator for the Sheriff’s Office.
In the days since Doty’s passing, multiple families have come forward to Dowling to express their condolences and the impact Doty had on their lives.
Dowling said, “Each of those cases, each of those families had a kid that ended up having drug problems and each one of them just said, ‘Mike turned my kid around. Mike saved my child’s life and I will never forget that man. There’s just no way.”
Doty was not one to brag, so it was not until after his passing that his family found out what he was doing behind the scenes.
Queen remembers the giving personality of Doty.
“Everything Mike did, from changing out my light bulbs in my house, just little things like that, to paying someone’s household bills for an entire month because the father he knew from addiction was in recovery so he took care of his household bills for a month,” she said.
All of the things Doty did was part of who he was, as he didn’t even tell the people closest to him what he was doing.
Zeigler said, “We didn’t know any of that and he never talked about it, he didn’t brag about it. He was doing all this special, amazing stuff for all these people and we didn’t know that until he was gone.”
Amidst the heartbreak and loss, the family finds comfort in knowing that Doty made a lasting impression.
Dowling said, “Everybody he met became a friend and he would do whatever they needed, at anytime, it just didn’t matter. He was the most loyal friend you could ever have.”
As the family tries to move on, they find solace in knowing that Doty is in a better place.
Ziegler said, “We could never tell what Mike struggled with because he wasn’t emotional about it, but he really did have a heart for the Lord. That hasn’t even been a question as to where he is now. We know he’s in good hands.”
York County legislators are moving to rename part of Carowinds Boulevard to “Detective Mike Doty Memorial Highway” in honor of the officer.
There is talk of the renaming to be unveiled on Friday on what would have been Doty’s and his twin brother Chris Doty’s 38th birthday.
