Hit-and-run driver who killed Nicki Minaj’s father hid car under tarp, asked dying victim if he was OK, police say

NEW YORK —A 70-year-old Long Island man charged Wednesday with the hit-and-run crash that killed Nicki Minaj’s dad hid his car under a tarp after asking the dying victim if he was OK, officials said.

Charles Polevich surrendered to police early Wednesday and was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence for the Feb. 12 death of Robert Maraj.

Maraj, 64, was walking in the street near his Mineola home when Polevich allegedly struck him about 6:15 p.m. Feb. 12, Nassau County police said.

“He was bad, he was really bad,” one man who witnessed the aftermath of the crash said of Maraj.

“I looked through the window, he didn’t look good,” said the Mineola resident, who wished not to be named. “He must have had a down vest, the feathers were all over the street.”

Polevich got out of his white 1992 Volvo station wagon, stood over Maraj, asked him if “he was OK” then jumped back into his vehicle and drove off, leaving the hip-hop star’s father dying in the street, court papers charge.

When he reached his home, not far from the crash scene, Polevich hid his car in his garage and covered the vehicle with a tarp, officials said.

Maraj was hospitalized and died later that day.

Nassau County police said Maraj was either walking home or to a local store. He was in the street because the sidewalks were covered in snow, investigators believe.

Polevich was driving north on Roslyn Road when he struck Maraj, who was walking in the same direction, according to prosecutors.

“He was absolutely aware of what happened,” Nassau County Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said at a press conference Wednesday. “He got out of the car and looked at the deceased. He made the conscious decision to leave.”

Polevich drove home avoiding intersections where he knew there would be cameras, court papers state.

“He did things to alter us from being able to discover the car,” Fitzpatrick said.

Police, however, were able to piece together security footage that showed the path of Polevich’s Volvo.

“We were able to track that vehicle prior to accident as well as after the accident and tracked it right to his house,” Fitzpatrick said.

Polevich was ordered held on $250,000 bond during a brief arraignment in Nassau County Criminal Court on Wednesday. He is due back in court Friday.

Maraj’s superstar daughter, who was born Onika Maraj, is known for hip-hop hits such as “Super Bass” and “Starships.” She has not publicly commented on his death, but has spoken out about her fraught relationship with her father over the years.

My father was abusive,” she said in a 2012 “Nightline” appearance, adding that he abused drugs and alcohol. “We were afraid for (my mother’s) life because whenever he would have a real bad outburst, he would threaten to kill her.”

In a Rolling Stone interview in 2010, Minaj said she would pray that God would make her rich so she could take care of her mother.

“I always felt like if I took care of my mother, my mother wouldn’t have to stay with my father, and he was the one, at that time, that was bringing us pain.”

“We didn’t want him around at all, and so I always felt like being rich would cure everything, and that was always what drove me,” she added.

Minaj later told The New York Times he didn’t abuse her physically but would always yell and curse at her and her mother.

“It made me feel it was the way to interact, because that’s how I saw him interacting,” she told the paper in 2015.

Minaj, 38, became a parent herself in September when she gave birth to a baby boy. The rapper hasn’t revealed the baby’s name, although her fans have nicknamed the infant “Simba.” Minaj also calls her baby with husband Kenneth Petty “Pappabear.”

“Becoming a mom is by far the most fulfilling job I’ve ever taken on,” Minaj wrote on Instagram in January as she released an image of the 3-month-old infant. “Sending love to all the superhero mothers out there.”

Residents of Mineola were stunned that the hip-hop superstar’s father had settled in the village.

“How is Nicki Minaj’s father walking over here?” asked resident Americo Marques, who lives across the street from the crash scene. “You know, he’s supposed to be a rich guy.”