Mineola, New York – The father of rapper Nicki Minaj, 64, died after being hit by a driver who fled and hit him on Long Island, police said. Robert Maraj was walking along a road in Mineola at 6:15 pm on Friday when he was hit by a car that was going on, Nassau County police said. Maraj was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Saturday.
CBS New York spoke to a neighbor who lives right in front of where the incident happened.
“We just saw a torn, open jacket, trying to make sure the man had a wrist,” she said. “All I expected was for the person to have a pulse and survive. I’m at a loss for words. I don’t know what to say.”
The police are asking for more witnesses to the fatal accident.
Minaj, 38, was born Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad and raised in the Queens neighborhood of New York.
She made no public statement about her father’s death.