The wire actor Michael K. Williams was discovered dead in his New York City residence.
According to law enforcement officials, Michael K. Williams, who played famed stick-up guy Omar Little on "The Wire," died of a suspected heroin overdose in his Brooklyn apartment on Monday afternoon.
'Heroin' was found on the kitchen table with Williams, 54, face-down and unresponsive in the dining room of his posh Williamsburg home.
According to insiders, a family of the Emmy-winning actor spoke with him on Friday, and Williams was due to attend an event on Saturday but did not.
According to sources, a relative then proceeded to Williams' home at 440 Kent Avenue, where someone called the officers just before 2 pm, reporting there was a male in the house who was "unresponsive" and "feels chilly," according to sources.
According to sources, Williams died around 2:12 p.m. after reportedly overdosing. Uncertainty surrounded how long the actor had been dead.
According to a police source, "no foul play is suspected." There was no forced entrance and everything was in order.
A man sat sobbing and talking into his cell phone at a table outside Williams' building on Monday afternoon, while Williams was inside.
Unable to contain his sobs and shaking his phone, the inconsolable guy said: "I found the body."
It was confirmed by Williams' longtime rep in a statement.
To The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson said: "It is with great sadness that the family reports that Emmy-nominated actor Michael Kenneth Williams has passed away." Your privacy is requested as they grieve this insurmountable loss.
As a result, sources claim that police are looking into where the drugs seized in Williams' house came from.
Williams' building was visited by the city's Medical Examiner's Office on Monday afternoon, and eight NYPD officers, including at least two supervisors, were on the street in front. Towards the end of the day, family and friends were spotted hugging each other as police removed evidence bags from the scene.
Chalky White, a bootlegger in the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire," was also played by the East Flatbush native.
In "The Wire," his openly gay character carried a sawed-off shotgun while robbing drug dealers while whistling Elmer Fudd's "A hunting we will go."
"I strive to give the characters more nuance," Williams had stated.
This year he told the Guardian: "I use my work as an opportunity to engage empathy and compassion for persons society may caricature or ostracize."
There is no such thing as a person who wakes up one morning and declares, "I am going to be an illegal drug dealer or a thief." No. As a result of a series of circumstances, they believe that this is the only option to get out of their situation. Having grown up in a predominantly black neighborhood, I can attest to some of these incidents."
A slash wound from a fight in Queens at the age of 25 had left him with the scar to prove it.
"Thug roles" were Williams' first significant acting opportunities, which he attributed to his facial scar.
While on "The Wire," he admitted that playing Little, a thief who steals from heroin dealers, influenced him in real life.
It was in 2016 when the actor revealed to NPR that while frantically seeking help for his addiction, he strolled into a church in New Jersey.
"I was broken as I walked through those doors.... 'The Wire' had just finished its third season when this happened,' Williams added.
"I strive to give the characters more nuance," Williams had stated.
This year he told the Guardian: "I use my work as an opportunity to engage empathy and compassion for persons society may caricature or ostracize."
There is no such thing as a person who wakes up one morning and declares, "I am going to be an illegal drug dealer or a thief." No. As a result of a series of circumstances, they believe that this is the only option to get out of their situation. Having grown up in a predominantly black neighborhood, I can attest to some of these incidents."
A slash wound from a fight in Queens at the age of 25 had left him with the scar to prove it.
In fact, Williams attributes his first significant acting breaks to his facial scars, which landed him "thug roles."
Even while filming "The Wire," the actor was open about his own troubles with narcotics, noting that playing Little, a drug dealer who robs, affected him in real life.
It was in 2016 when the actor revealed to NPR that while frantically seeking help for his addiction, he strolled into a church in New Jersey.
"I was broken as I walked through those doors.... 'The Wire,' I believe, was in its third season," Williams added.
"I was high on narcotics.... In danger of losing everything I had worked for, I walked through those doors to find the pastor hadn't even heard of 'The Wire,' let alone watched it.
It was Michael Kenneth Williams that I had written down, and the pastor asked me, "So what do you want to be called, man?" If you don't mind if I call myself Mike instead of Michael because my name is Michael. I asked him why everyone kept saying, "Omar is in trouble." This guy is clueless about the show," remarked Williams.
Originally a backup dancer for Madonna and George Michael, Tupac Shakur urged the actor to pursue a career in acting.
As a result of his eventual prominence, he became the American Civil Liberties Union's "ambassador for ending mass incarceration" in 2015.
It's possible that I was Eric Garner. Williams told the Guardian that he could have been Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin, alluding to three murdered black males whose deaths at the hands of law police sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
As Williams put it, "my goal is to end mass incarceration and have more debate about how we can stop the government from filling up jails with low-level, nonviolent drug offenders and people with mental illnesses or addictions." There's nothing criminal about those situations.
