Hong Kong-based Indian Teen About to Start Freshman Year at NYU Killed in Hit-and-Run in the Hamptons
- Devesh Samtani, 18, was spending two weeks with family at a rental house in Sagaponack before the start of the school year.
Just days before he was to begin his freshman year at NYU, eighteen-year-old Devesh Samtani was killed in a hit-and-run accident in the Hamptons, on eastern Long Island’s South Fork. The Indian-origin teen had just flown in from Hong Kong, where he was raised and was spending two weeks with family at a rental house in Sagaponack, Newsday reported.
“As soon as he landed in New York, he came out east, and the plan was to be together for two weeks in the Hamptons with the family and then start NYU,” Samtani’s aunt, Jennifer Kurani told Newsday.
On Aug. 10, Samtani was among a large crowd Aug. 10 walking in the roadway, away from a house party in Amagansett, when he was struck by a teen driver about to drop people off at that same party, the Newsday report said, citing the East Hampton Town police. Samtani was rushed to Stony Brook University hospital, where he died a day later. The driver, later identified by the police as Daniel Campbell, 19, fled the scene, but was arrested hours later in Montauk, the Newsday report said.
Det. Sgt. Daniel Toia of the East Hampton Town Police Department told Newsday that at the time of the crash, “Samtani had been in a large crowd of Hamptons party goers who were spilling out of the gathering after the police had broken it up.”
Jennifer Kurani told Newsday that before Samtani left for the party in Amagansett with his cousin and the cousin’s friend, the family had gone to dinner together.
She added that her nephew was “ so charming, whether it was with his peers, teachers, girls, guys — like, everybody. He was just that person. And his voice was always soft. He was never loud and obnoxious. He was just kind and fun.”
Samtani was the son of Kishore and Mala Samtani, the family entrepreneurs behind the Hong Kong-based ‘As Seen on TV’ manufacturers of gadgets.
In an obituary on Dignity Memorial’s website, Samtani’s parents describe him as “beautiful, handsome, kind, intelligent, fun-loving.” They continue: “Of all the special gifts in life, however great or small, To have had you as our son, Was the greatest gift of all. A special time, a special face, a special son, we can’t replace, With an aching heart I whisper to you, This is not the end, it’s until we meet again.”