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It's not every young person who learns to drive behind the wheel of his father's Maserati.
And although the car was a lot to handle, Robert Minter was strict with his son, preaching safety and patience from the passenger seat.
'You got your hands at ten and two,' Minter said, telling his student how to hold the steering wheel. 'You got your foot over the brake' Press down on the brake. Put in drive, all the way down to D. Now look, don't take your foot off that brake yet. Do not give it any gas. Just ease your foot off the brake when I tell you. And you keep your eyes straight.'
The proud pop shared the lesson on his Facebook feed, and his followers were moved by the father-son moment.
Four months later, Minter was dead, killed in a horrific car crash behind the wheel of the same car he was using to teach his son to drive.
Cops said Minter, 38, a Bronx construction worker who had worked hard and saved up to buy the car of his dreams, lost control of the luxury vehicle early Saturday at a Brooklyn intersection, where it flipped under an elevated train line, split in two, and burst into flames.
Officials said Minter was pronounced dead at the scene, but miraculously, a childhood friend, Frank Hutto, 35, survived, and was listed in critical condition.
The Maserati was speeding past the corner of Atlantic and Rochester Aves. in Crown Heights about 3:30 a.m. when the driver lost control under an elevated train line, cops said.
The car jumped a curb and hit a concrete median and pole before flipping in the air and splitting in two, cops said. The vehicle then caught fire, witnesses told police.
Responding firefighters put out the blaze, then found two men inside.
Minter's father, Robert Sr., said his son was a model husband and father who worked hard and made everybody's life around him better.
'Robert was a good young man,' Robert Sr. said. " I taught him how to be the best man he can be. His son is everything to him.'
Robert Sr. said the Maserati with the caramel colored interior was his son's guilty pleasure.
'He was proud of his car, he loved that car,' he said. 'My son was an excellent driver and he wasn't speeding. He doesn't speed like that.'
He said he was content with his son getting the Maserati because it was something for him to be proud of, and he had worked hard for it.
'I wish he would have bought a Nissan,' Robert Sr. said. 'I hate that car now.'
But at least one witness said Minter's car was moving extremely fast. Surveillance video from an auto body shop across the street captured the devastating crash, and a worker who had seen the footage said the car was speeding.
'That car was flying,' the worker said. 'It looked like he hit the curb and flew around and hit the pole. The car was flying down the block, just flying. The car was split into two. It was wrecked.'
Although the car was barely recognizable, Hutto managed to survive.
'He's doing a lot better,' said Hutto's sister, Cinnamon Paltoo, 34. 'It's just a process. We continue to pray for him physically, emotionally and mentally. We're also praying for the family that lost a life.'
He said Hutto and Minter were friends for more than 20 years.
Tribute candles lined the sidewalk under the train tracks where Minter died. Friends called Minter 'Balla' because of his love of basketball, his father said.
'When I got the news, I didn't believe it and I came up here to see what happened and I drove past the scene,' Robert Sr. said. 'I still don't believe it's true. He was a good kid, and he grew up to be a good man.'
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Originally Posted by Nic B
