The father of rapper Nicki Minaj died after being hit by a driver who fled to New York, police said.
Robert Maraj was walking down a street in Mineola on Long Island on Friday at 6:15 p.m. when he was hit by a car that did not stop, according to Nassau County police. Maraj was taken to a hospital where he died the next day. He was 64 years old.
Police request that any witness to the fatal crash be pronounced.
Minaj, who is actually Onika Tanya Maraj, was born in Trinidad and grew up in New York City, Queens County.
The 38-year-old artist has not made public statements about his father’s death.
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There was little they could do for the progenitor of the music star after the fatal event that took place at six in the afternoon. Robert Maraj arrived at the hospital in critical condition and doctors could not do anything to save his life.
It is unknown at this time what happened to the driver. Police are investigating the collision, though at the moment they don’t have much as passersby didn’t see much of what happened. It was already getting dark and they could not see either the license plate of the vehicle or the driver. It was also going very fast.
Nicki Minaj has not yet made a public statement, although her representative has confirmed the news. The rapper and her father had a difficult relationship. When she was just a little girl she had to watch her father get drunk daily and consume crack.
He also abused his mother, Carol. “He drank a lot and took drugs, and he became violent when he did. When the house caught fire, I was trying to kill my mother, “he said in an interview. Eventually he managed to quit alcohol and drugs but the harm was already done. To make matters worse, Minaj’s brother was sentenced to life in prison in January 2020 for raping an 11-year-old girl.