A man has been arrested over the death of Nicki Minaj‘s father, Robert Maraj, police in New York City have said.
The police detained Charles Polevich, 70, after he turned himself in, Detective Lieutenant Stephen Fitzpatrick of the New York City Police Department said on Wednesday. q
Robert Maraj died after a vehicle struck him down just after 6 PM on Friday last week. The 64-year-old was walking in the road when a vehicle, travelling in the same direction, hit and killed him.
Polevich faces charges of leaving the scene of a deadly automobile accident and taking measures to disguise his car. Det Lt Fitzpatrick said that officers “kind of tracked” Polevich’s white Volvo “right to his house”.
Polevich owns a home on New York’s Long Island but lives in Guam, a US territory in the Pacific Ocean. According to the police detective: “Mr Povelich did stop at that time, but then fled after that once he saw that he had injured this person”.
The police officer added that Polevich may not have faced charges had he not fled the scene.
Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj, was born in Trinidad and grew up in the New York City borough of Queens. The death of her father comes just four months after the birth of Nicki Minaj’s first child with husband Kenneth Petty.