Woman Fatally Shoots Boyfriend In YouTube Stunt To ‘Boost Online Profile’ That Went Horribly Wrong

This is just nuts.

A Minnesota woman killed her boyfriend Monday by shooting at a book he was holding over his chest, in an incredibly dumb YouTube stunt gone wrong.

19-year-old aspiring YouTube personality Monalisa Perez faces second-degree manslaughter charges for shooting her boyfriend, 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz, in the chest. 

In terms of ridiculous social media stunt videos, you really can’t get any more tragic. Ruiz was holding a large book up to his chest, which the couple thought would actually deflect a bullet fired from a monstrously powerful .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun. The young couple was filming the clip in a desperate bid to gain more views on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr8VlTZMNn0

The fatal incident took place outside the couple’s home in Norman County, Minnesota before a crowd of 30 onlookers. It has been captured on GoPro, although police say the grisly footage will not be released. 

Together, Perez and Ruiz chronicled their relationship and excursions on the video-streaming platform under the moniker “La Monalisa.” 

Perez, who has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, is currently pregnant with the couple’s second child. Their 3-year-old daughter, who was present during Ruiz’s death, is prominently featured on their YouTube account.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij5iYSbuomM

Shockingly, the stunt was allegedly all Ruiz’s plan.  

His aunt, Claudia Ruiz, told WDAY-TV, “He had told me about that idea and I said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Why are you going to use a gun? Why?'”

“They were in love, they loved each other,” she added. “It was just a prank gone wrong.”

Before the deadly shooting, Perez tweeted they were preparing to film “one of the most dangerous videos ever” and cautioned that it was “his idea, not mine.”

“It shouldn’t have happened like this. It shouldn’t have happened at all,” Ruiz’s aunt told CNN affiliate KVLY.  

Perez told police that her boyfriend wanted to make a YouTube video of her shooting a book and had been talking about it for awhile. He held the book up to his chest and convinced Perez to shoot at him, believing the book would stop the bullet.

Perez told police that Pedro convinced her it was a safe stunt by showing her a different book he had previously shot where the bullet did not go all the way through, according to the arrest report. He set up two cameras to film the whole thing, hoping a video of the dangerous stunt would go viral.

She fired from about a foot away with a .50-caliber Desert Eagle handgun while he held the book to his chest. It did not stop the bullet, and paramedics on the scene said Ruiz died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

It’s incredibly sad, but at least we now know definitively that no, a freakin’ book won’t stop a .45 caliber bullet from killing you. Case closed.