Spooky video shows the final moments of a gifted student celebrating his graduation at the casino
A haunting video reveals a student’s final moments before he collapsed and died while celebrating his graduation at a Connecticut casino.
Ethan Bherwani, 22, of Long Island, was at the Mohegan Sun casino with two friends in May 2021 when he made the devastating decision to buy cocaine from a dealer in the bathroom.
Unbeknownst to him, the cocaine was laced with the deadly drug fentanyl, causing him to fall over at the blackjack table moments later.
Surveillance footage showed him wearing a hat and face mask while playing cards before he fell unconscious and fell to the ground, where he lay motionless.
His friends weren’t there because they had already gone to bed. You see other people looking at him, but they continue to play cards. Two other bystanders then run over in an attempt to provide assistance, but appear to be waved away by an employee. It took 11 minutes for paramedics to arrive and perform CPR.
Ethan was eventually taken to the hospital, but died nine days later on May 27, 2021 – just days before his graduation from Baruch College in New York.
His heartbroken father, Kamal Bherwani, 55, has spent the past three years fighting for justice after it emerged that the drug dealer who sold his son the deadly cocaine, Jerrard Santiago, was prolific in the area and had been banned from the casino years earlier.
A haunting video reveals a student’s last moments before he collapsed and died while celebrating his graduation at a Connecticut casino
Ethan Bherwani, 22, died of an accidental fentanyl overdose. This photo was taken a few weeks before his death in May 2021
Ethan, who was gifted in math and science, and studied business journalism at university, would go on to study law after graduating.
But his father Kamal said: “We knew there was no hope when the doctor told us he was brain dead.”
He later “gave the gift of life to three people” by donating his organs, he added.
After his son’s death, Ethan’s father, a global businessman who worked under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, began investigating the events that led to his son’s death.
During these investigations, he learned that Santiago, 44, was a prolific drug dealer with a criminal history who had been permanently banned from the Mohegan Sun casino in 2017 for violent behavior.
At the time, Mohegan Sun Santiago police had issued a warning that he would be arrested if he returned to the casino.
However, Santiago managed to get through casino security seven times between 2020 and 2022, according to a police statement.
Records show there were three visits in 2020, two in 2021 – including the day Ethan died – and two more in 2022.
“Mohegan Sun puts money before the safety of their customers. These are dates that Mohegan Sun police have reported, but there are probably dozens more,” Kamal said.
He also revealed that when Mohegan Sun police stopped Santiago at the casino after Ethan collapsed, the drug dealer claimed he didn’t know who he was.
‘They never checked his ID. They could have arrested him on the spot and we would never have had to go through the last three years,” Kamal said.
It took almost two years before Santiago was finally arrested on March 30, 2023.
Kamal described how Santiago was captured, explaining that a trusted acquaintance of the dealer who was in prison became an informant in exchange for leniency.
“They set up a car with audio and video surveillance and orchestrated two drug buys,” he said.
Investigators conducted a controlled purchase of fentanyl and heroin in Santiago on February 3, 2023, and again on February 14, 2023 for fentanyl and cocaine.
Kamal added, “The District Attorney’s Office has done a phenomenal job.”
On January 24 of this year, Santiago pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to distribute and distribute a controlled substance.
During a hearing in March and April into Ethan’s death, the family was finally shown footage of what happened in the early hours of May 18.
‘It was surreal. Everyone told me not to watch it, including the prosecutor, but my family and I wanted to see the last minutes of our relative,” Kamal said.
“It was unbearable to see how no one helped my son,” he continued. “It was beyond shocking that no one even tried to help, whether they were trained or not – and then they stopped two other people who did try to help them.”
Ethan, who was gifted in math and science, and studied business journalism at university, would go on to study law after graduating
Jerrard Santiago was a prolific drug dealer and had been banned from the casino years earlier
A social media post posted by Santiago shortly before he was captured
Kamal added that a medical expert testified at the hearing that if Ethan had been given Narcan, he would still be alive.
At the end of the hearing, Judge Meyer concluded that Santiago knowingly distributed the narcotics that caused Ethan’s overdose and death.
According to court documents, on May 18, 2021, Santiago sold cocaine laced with fentanyl to a 22-year-old man in a restroom at the Mohegan Sun Casino. The buyer overdosed on the casino floor and died about 11 days later.
On September 24, Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Santiago would serve an eight-year prison sentence, followed by three years of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Mohegan Tribal Police, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ross Weingarten and Christopher W. Schmeisser.
Bherwani has since started a non-profit organization called Proclevity to help raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.
‘It is important to emphasize the difference between an overdose and a poisoning. The judge did that,” he explained.
“Many people think these deaths are all due to opioid addicts. And that’s just not the case.’
He explained that he knew his son had experimented with cocaine a few times and paid the ultimate price.
‘I blame Ethan for doing something he promised he would never do, namely hard drugs. Many people who have read or listened to the story think that I am not holding him responsible. I do that too, and he paid for his mistake with his life. There is no higher fine.
“But Santiago is also responsible, as the federal courts have found, and so is Mohegan Sun.”
Kamal added: ‘The winners here are the lives saved in the future. Many of them will not even know that the tragedy has been averted.”
‘My first reaction was anger, but anger is poisonous and doesn’t get you anywhere. Anger covers up pain. “I had to work through the anger to get through the pain and bring awareness to this issue,” he continued. “Every decision of mine is based on what Ethan would have wanted me to do.”
Deaths from fentanyl are reportedly falling for the first time in a decade after reaching astronomical levels – but experts warned the The drug is simply running out of people to kill after claiming the lives of approximately 320,000 Americans in a decade.
About 75,000 people were killed in the US last year by the deadly powerful drug, which was slightly lower than the previous year and the first time since 2011 that deaths have fallen annually.
Ethan and Kamal pictured together at the young man’s high school graduation
Ethan pictured with his family: his father, stepsister Natalia, his brother, his stepmother Sabita at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Jeff Hamilton, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun, said, “Mohegan is a family-owned business that has taken extensive steps over the years to ensure our customers are safe on our property.
“Mohegan has its own police, EMTs and paramedics on site 24 hours a day, equipped with Narcan, because our guests come first at Mohegan Sun.
“We are saddened by the death of this young man and we appreciate and support the broad efforts of leaders and other groups to contain such a serious problem.
“Since then, we have worked closely with outside law enforcement to support their work in any way we can, including most recently testifying in court in favor of an enhanced sentence for the individual who illegally provided narcotics in this incident.
“The fentanyl epidemic has far too many tragedies every year. This is a national epidemic that must be addressed at all times.”
