New York – Mall Kiosk Owners Deny Responsibility In Exploding E-Cig Incident That Injured Brooklyn Jewish Teen

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    Brooklyn, NY – The owners of a mall kiosk being sued by the family of a Brooklyn teen injured by an exploding e-cigarette are pointing the finger of blame directly at the 14 year old and his parents.

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    As previously reported on VIN News, Leor Domatov was at Kings Plaza on April 5th trying out an e-cigarette at Plaza Vapes when the device exploded in his hands, leaving the teen with possibly permanent damage to his eye and hands and covered in cuts and bruises.

    Igor and Esther Kanchik, owners of Plaza Vapes, said that Domatov had plugged his own e-cigarette into the store’s power supply when the explosion occurred, according to The Daily News.

    “No one gave him anything,” said Esther Kanchik. “He picked up the employee’s device and he switched out the tank without permission. To say that the employees were selling to underage people is totally wrong.”

    “They are blaming me but he took it without consent of my employee,” added Igor Kanchik.

    Mrs. Kanchik said that she felt bad for what happened to Domatov, but that it was unfair to malign her and her husband for the accident. While all of the kiosk’s security cameras were unplugged when the incident occurred, the Kanchiks said that witnesses and footage from neighboring stores will prove their version of events.

    Plaza Vapes was fined $1,000 by the city in connection with the incident. The Kanchiks, who fired the employee in question, deny that the kiosk had no signs indicating that the sale of e-cigarettes is prohibited to minors.

    Several other problems have also come to light since the incident took place three weeks ago.

    Plaza Vapes’ insurance had expired a few weeks before the incident took place, but Mrs. Kanchik said that Kings Plaza should have notified them of the lapse and that once the problem was discovered, the policy was paid immediately. Mrs. Kanchik also said that her husband’s prior conviction for his involvement with a group that was selling bath salts was completely irrelevant.

    It anyone is to blame, said Mrs. Kanchik, it is the parents of the teen, who she portrayed as being unruly.

    “There’s no reason why a 14 year old boy should have been hanging out there,” said Mrs. Kanchik.

    Leor Domatov’s lawyer, Marc Freund, scoffed at the Kanchik’s claim, saying he has witnesses who will prove that Plaza Vapes was at fault and questioned how all four of the kiosk’s security cameras could have been non-operational at the moment the incident took place.

    “He was with his friends and they can corroborate that the clerk was showing him products,” said Freund.

    Freund also disputed Mrs. Kanchik’s claim that her husband’s prior arrest should be ignored.

    “[Kanchik’s] criminal past has a lot to do with Kings Plaza,” said Freund. “They should have vetted him.”++


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