A New Orleans police officer Lil Wayne referred to as 'Uncle Bob' is dead. The rapper spent his career praising him after he saved his life.

• Robert Hoobler was found dead on Friday in his home in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. 
• Hoobler saved Lil Wayne's life after the rapper attempted to commit suicide at the age of 12. 
• Lil Wayne called Hoobler "Uncle Bob" and offered to financially support him in 2019.

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A former New Orleans police officer who saved rapper Lil Wayne's life in 1994 was found dead in his Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, home on Friday. 

No cause of death has been specified, but a friend of Hoobler told local paper NOLA the former officer had been dealing with health problems after his legs were amputated following a car wreck. 

Lil Wayne called Hoobler "Uncle Bob" after he saved his life following a suicide attempt. Wayne — known at the time as Dwayne Carter Jr. — shot himself in the chest at 12 years old while he was home alone.

Wayne revealed during a 2021 interview that he had been dealing with a lot of mental health issues and suicidal thoughts as a child. 

Hoobler recounted in a 2009 article in NOLA that when he arrived after hearing the call while he was off-duty, he heard a faint voice yell "Help me! I've been shot."

As he called emergency medical services he spoke to Wayne and told him to "stay awake." Hoobler later learned there were no ambulances available, but instead of waiting, a captain ordered him to take the young Wayne to the hospital himself. 

Hoobler carried Wayne in his lap in the backseat of a patrol car as he bled all over him until they arrived at a local hospital in Jefferson Parish. He told Wayne that he was "going to be fine."

A nurse later told Hoobler that if they had waited for an ambulance, Wayne would have died, Hoobler said.

Hoobler later worked as an officer for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department but was fired in 2012 for tasing and using racial slurs against a Black man he arrested following an argument.

In 2019 TMZ reported that Lil Wayne told Hoobler he would financially support him in any way. Wayne also offered to pay for Hoobler's funeral after he was previously rumored to be dead, but Hoobler reached out to say that he was alive.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.