19-year-old Monalisa Perez has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of her boyfriend, 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III. The young couple from Minnesota was filming a YouTube stunt attempting to stop a .50 caliber Desert Eagle with a book. Ruiz held the book in front of his chest before Perez pulled the trigger from less than one foot away. The couple’s child and a crowd of nearly 30 friends, family, and neighbors watched the shooting.
Perez was in complete shock. According to court documents, she and Ruiz were both confident their trick would work as they had practiced on several other books.
As Ruiz bled out, Perez called 911 and told the operator she had “accidentally shot her boyfriend.” First responders arrived a few minutes later, but were unable to save Ruiz.
The couple was planning to share the stunt on their YouTube channel La MonaLisa, a channel that shows “the real life of a young couple who happen to be teen parents.” The couple has a 3-year-old daughter together and are expecting a second child.
Less than an hour before the shooting Perez tweeted “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE.”
Authorities collected at least two cameras that were recording the shooting. Claudia Ruiz, Pedro’s aunt, had tried to stop the couple from performing such a dangerous stunt. “He had told me about that idea,” Claudia told WDAY-TV. “I said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Why are you going to use a gun? Why?'” According to Claudia, Pedro told her he was going through with the stunt “because we want more viewers, we want to get famous.”
“They were in love, they loved each other,” Claudia said. “It was just a prank gone wrong.”
Perez was arrested and released on a $7,000 bond. She will wear an ankle monitor until her trial and faces up to 10 years in prison if she is found guilty.
While it is disturbing to think anyone would be foolish enough to try and stop one of the most powerful handguns in the world with a book, it is truly frightening that none of the 30 witnesses knew enough about firearms to stop them.
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