NEW YORK, Feb 18 — A driver accused of striking and killing US rapper Nicki Minaj’s father in a hit-and-run has been arrested, police said yesterday.

Charles Polevich, 70, was charged with "Leaving the Scene of an Accident with a Fatality and Tampering with Evidence,” New York state’s Nassau County Police said on Twitter.

Polevich, who pleaded not guilty, was released on a US$250,000 (RM1 million) bond, his lawyer Michael Scotto told CNN.

Minaj’s 64-year-old father Robert Maraj was walking down the street in the municipality of Mineola on Long Island on Friday when he was struck by a car.

The driver fled the scene and Maraj was taken to the hospital where he died Saturday.

Minaj, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago but raised in a Queens neighbourhood not far from where her father was struck, has not yet issued an official statement. — AFP