A suspect in a deadly explosion that rocked a Detroit suburb has been arrested while attempting to leave the country, authorities said Friday.
Noor Noel Kestou, 31, the owner of Goo, a vape pen distributor housed in the building that caught fire and exploded on March 4, was apprehended by U.S. Customs and New York Port Authority personnel at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday. Kestou was preparing to board a one-way flight to Hong Kong when he was taken into custody.
The Commerce Township resident was brought back to Michigan on Wednesday and arraigned Thursday on an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from the explosion that killed 19-year-old Turner Lee Salter.
Salter was struck by a nitrous oxide canister that was launched through the air by the blast, which sent canisters flying up to 2 miles from the site. He was about a quarter of a mile away from the building when he was hit and later succumbed to his injuries.
Investigators believe the fire started in the southwest corner of the 26,700-square-foot building, which stored more than 100,000 vape pens and had received a truckload of butane canisters just a week before the explosion. More than half of that volatile stock was still on site when the blaze erupted.
Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido said Kestou had been a suspect from the beginning, given his ownership of the business. “Anyone that owns a business and something like this happens has to be considered a suspect,” Lucido told reporters.
Authorities were tipped off on April 20 about Kestou’s plan to fly to Hong Kong, but his ultimate intentions remain unclear.
“We don’t know what his ultimate goal was,” Lucido said. “Was it to stay out of the country with a wife and child here? Nobody has a crystal ball to determine who is a flight risk.”
Kestou has been released from jail after posting a $500,000 bond, but authorities have seized his passport and require him to wear a GPS tether as a condition of his release. A probable cause hearing is set for May 7 in Clinton Township District Court.
The involuntary manslaughter charge is the most severe that Lucido’s office could bring based on the current evidence, but the investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
The tragedy has left the community reeling and seeking answers about how such a devastating event could have occurred in their backyard.