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“We’re all grieving together,” said Carmel Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt.
The NYPD said that Williams, 25, died Sunday, Sept. 21, following a crash of a police vehicle in the Bronx.
Schmitt, himself a retired Carmel police sergeant, recalled being colleagues with Williams' father, also named Michael Williams.
“We were hired the same day,” he said.
Schmitt also recalled that Williams and one of his sons, about the same age, played basketball on different teams.
The supervisor, who is also a former NYPD officer, called Williams as “very athletic, very bright."
“He worked hard for everything that he accomplished,” Schmitt said.
"Today we mourn the loss of one of the finest and pray for the speedy recovery of those officers injured this morning in a vehicle accident," said NYPD's Police Commissioner William Bratton, in a statement that was included with the announcement of the officer's death.
Bratton and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio were scheduled to fly to the home of Williams' parents in Poughquag in Dutchess County to express their sorrow, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In a post on her Facebook page, Putnam County Executive Mary Ellen Odell offered condolences.
"Our hearts are heavy today as we mourn the loss of NYPD Officer Michael Williams, the son of Police Officer Michael Williams Sr., a 34-year veteran with the Carmel Police Department," she stated.
Odell added: "Although we know that law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day, the pain we feel when any officer dies while on duty does not lessen. The young NYPD Officer, Michael Williams should have had his whole life ahead of him, instead it was cut short by a tragic accident. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Williams family, the officers that knew him and the friends who were touched by him."
Williams' funeral is scheduled for Thursday at 11 a.m. and will be held in LaGrangeville at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church at 1925 Route 82, with burial in Union Valley Cemetery at 30 Union Valley Road in Mahopac.
Calling hours will be Wednesday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the McHoul Funeral Home at 895 Route 82 in Hopewell Junction are 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Wednesday.
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