Funeral Held For NYPD Officer Michael Williams, Killed In Bronx Van Crash
LAGRANGEVILLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Family, friends and colleagues bid an emotional farewell Thursday to a rookie NYPD cop who was killed in a van accident in the Bronx last weekend.
Officer Michael Williams died Sunday after the marked NYPD vehicle he was riding in with eight other police officers struck a barrier on Bruckner Boulevard near Bryant Avenue in Hunts Point. The 25-year-old was sitting in the very back when he was ejected from the vehicle as it careened more than 90 feet. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Lincoln Hospital.
Funeral services, with full police honors, were held for Williams at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church in Lagrangeville, in Dutchess County. He was remembered as a man who achieved his lifelong goal of becoming a police officer, WCBS 880's John Metaxas reported.
Funeral Held For NYPD Officer Michael Williams, Killed In Bronx Van Crash
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Williams was inspired by his father, a longtime cop in Carmel.
"Little Mike wanted to be just like Big Mike," the mayor said. "He wanted to be a police officer deeply."
Police helicopters flew overhead, and thousands of officers from around the state stood shoulder to shoulder as Williams' casket was carried out of the stone church.
The officers "were squaring their shoulders, wiping their tears to show this family the respect they had for their son," said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
Williams will be buried in Mahopac.
The eight other officers in Sunday's van crash suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The members of the 47th Precinct in the North Bronx were being transported to two different details -- one at the People's Climate March in Manhattan, the other near the United Nations building.
Williams graduated from a Poughkeepsie-area high school and worked as a part-time sheriff's deputy before joining the NYPD in January.
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