Long Island: Eighteen-year-old Devesh Samtani of Hong Kong had just flown in for his freshman year at New York University and only days into his family’s getaway in the Hamptons when he was killed in a hit and run incident.
“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,” said Samtani’s aunt, Jennifer Kurani, one of his relatives at the rental house, which was in Sagaponack.
Samtani was among a large crowd Aug. 10 walking on the roadway, away from a house party in Amagansett, when on Old Stone Highway near Eastwood Court he was hit by a teen driver about to drop people off at that same party, according to the East Hampton Town Police Department.
The driver, later identified by the police as Daniel Campbell, 19, fled the scene and was arrested hours later in Montauk. Samtani never regained consciousness, he was admitted at Stony Brook University hospital. “We were very blessed to have him for those 18 years in this world,” said his uncle, Jay Kurani, Jennifer’s husband. Now, instead of seeing Samtani off to start at NYU later this summer, where he was to study economics and math, the family is holding a funeral Wednesday in Manhattan and mourning the sudden loss of a young man who long dreamed of living in New York. “He was so charming, whether it was with his peers, teachers, girls, guys — like, everybody,” said his aunt. “He was just that person. And his voice was always soft. He was never loud and obnoxious. He was just kind and fun.
Devesh, of Indian ancestry and educated in Hong Kong, belonged to family entrepreneurs behind the Hong Kong-based “As Seen on TV” manufacturers of gadgets — nonstick pans, Ginsu-type knives, massagers and other household products.
