The veteran cop dad of the NYPD rookie killed in a Bronx van crash is so grief stricken over the loss of his son, he’s considering hanging up his badge and gun, a close friend told The Post.
“He’s thinking of retiring,” said a fellow cop and pal of long time Carmel, N.Y. police officer Michael Williams Sr., 64, whose son died on a rain-slicked highway Sunday. “He’s distraught. He’s not doing well.”
“Its tough for him, especially going to work,” the friend said. “Every time he sees the uniform, it’s [going to] remind him of what happened.”
Michael Williams Jr., 25, was ejected from the side window of a department van that crashed into a divider as it was rounding a sharp turn on the Bruckner Expressway in Hunts Point.
“My son was a great man and he was living his dream being a police officer,” the grieving father said Monday through a Carmel PD spokesmen.
Following in his father’s footsteps, the younger Williams had just joined the NYPD earlier this year, and was traveling with eight other new cops to work security details at the UN and climate march in Manhattan.
But what should have been routine assignments turned into tragedy when van driver Nicholas Jusino, 32, lost control of the massive vehicle just before dawn.
Only Jusino and the front seat passenger were wearing seat belts, according to a source, while Williams’ body was launched down the highway and the other six occupants in the rear seats were tossed around like rag dolls.
Although police officers are required to wear seat-belts while on duty, sources said, they are rarely worn, particularly in vans like the one the doomed cop was riding in.
“Most officers don’t wear their seat belts while on the job,” a law enforcement source said. “In the event of an emergency or an arrest, they need to be out of that car as fast as humanly possible.
“But after the tragedy of Officer Michael Williams’ death, you have to wonder, can’t they at least put a seatbelt on? Officer Williams could still be alive if he had been buckled up.”
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is looking into further training for cops who operate large Ford Econoline vans, particularly on highways and in poor weather conditions, a police source said.
“The vans are typically used for precinct patrols on city streets,” a source said. “Operating the vans at higher speeds, on highways, may require a greater level of training.”
A wake for officer Williams is scheduled for Wednesday at McHoul’s Funeral Home in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., between 2 to 4 p.m. and again from 7 to 9 p.m. His funeral will take place Thursday at 11 a.m. at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha in Lagrangeville.
Additional reporting by Matt McNulty and Reuven Fenton
