A suburban Detroit businessman has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with an explosion at a building he owned that propelled a nitrous oxide canister through the air and killed another man.
MOUNT CLEMENS, MI — A suburban Detroit businessman was charged Thursday with involuntary manslaughter in connection with an explosion at a building he owned that propelled a nitrous oxide canister through the air and struck and killed another man.
Noor Noel Kestou, 31, of Commerce Township, was charged in connection with the March 4 explosion that killed 19-year-old Turner Lee Salter about a quarter mile (0.40 kilometers) away. Kestou’s bond was set at just $500,000 cash/bond.
A probable cause hearing is scheduled for May 7 in Clinton Township District Court.
The explosion occurred in a building housing a vape industry distributor called Goo, which had more than 100,000 vape pens stored on site. Authorities have said that a truckload of butane canisters arrived at the building within a week of the explosion, sending the canisters flying up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) into the air, and that more than half of that supply was still there when the fire started.
Goo had received a township use permit in September 2022 for the 2,480-square-foot building as a retail location for a “smoke shop/vape shop” that would sell vape product paraphernalia, Clinton Township’s Building Department has said.
Kestou’s attorney, James Thomas, said he had no comment on the case.
Authorities have scheduled a news conference Friday morning to discuss the case.
