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Wyclef

Jean‘s father, The Reverend Gesner Jean, was

killed yesterday in a freak accident. The elder Jean was

pinned against his garage door by an unoccupied 1991 Bentley

owned by Clef.

Police in South Orange were called to The Reverend’s house

at 7:32 p.m., after Wyclef’s sister, Melky, heard a noise

in the family’s garage. Police arrived on the scene and

found the 60 year old Jean wedged between the rear of

the Bentley and the garage wall, according to Capt. Sal

Andreano. The Reverend Jean was alive when paramedics

rushed him to St. Barnabas Medical Center with serious

chest trauma. He was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m., due

to asphyxiation.

"Basically,

it was an accident," Wyclef Jean said yesterday.

"This is something that rarely happens, but it happened.

It was a freak accident." The incident is under investigation,

but detectives have found no signs of foul play. The car

was checked by a mechanic and was not malfunctioning.

The first

time the Reverend saw Clef perform was at Carnegie Hall,

when Wyclef had an assembled an all star cast that included

Whitney Houston and Eric Clapton.

Visitation will be from 6-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday at

Cotton Funeral Home, 130 Main St., Orange. Funeral services

will be from 9-11 a.m. Saturday at Good Shepherd Church

of the Nazarene, 1108 South Orange Ave., Newark.

"It’s

not a sad time. My dad is being reunited with God,"

said Melky said.