Mineola, New York — The 64-year-old father of rapper Nicki Minaj has died after being struck by a hit-and-run driver on Long Island, police said. Robert Maraj was walking along a road in Mineola at 6:15 p.m. Friday when he was hit by a car that kept going, Nassau County police said. Maraj was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead Saturday.
CBS New York spoke to a neighbor who lives right in front of where the incident happened.
“We just saw a jacket ripped open, cut open, trying to make sure the man had a pulse,” she said. “All I hoped for was the person to have a pulse and survive. I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say.”
Police are asking more witnesses to the fatal crash to come forward.
Minaj, 38, was born Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad and was raised in the New York City borough of Queens.
She hasn’t made any public statement about her father’s death.
