Pregnant 19-year-old fatally shoots boyfriend in YouTube stunt

Authorities arrested a pregnant Minnesota 19-year-old for fatally shooting her boyfriend in a bid for YouTube fame gone wrong.

MonaLisa Perez was charged with second-degree manslaughter Wednesday in the death of 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III, the Star Tribune reported.

Around 6:30 p.m. Monday Ruiz held up a book while Perez discharged a .50-caliber gun outside their home in Halstad. The pair had been trying to see whether the bullet would go through the book, according to a criminal complaint. Instead, the bullet struck Ruiz in the chest while the couple’s 3-year-old daughter watched on.

Ruiz’s aunt, Claudia Ruiz, said it was part of stunt the couple intended to share on YouTube.

“They were in love. It was just a prank gone wrong,” she told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. “I wish they wouldn’t have done it. I wish he would’ve just done another prank. He was so young. He had so much going for himself.”

Perez has a YouTube channel that boasts a series of clips she and her boyfriend made together, including their most recent video, “Doing Scary Stunts at the Fair Part 1.”

“Imagine when we have 300,000 subscribers,” Perez says in the video.

She was being held in a regional jail in Crookston and is scheduled to appear in Norman County court by video Wednesday afternoon.

“He told me he had an idea. I said, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it. Why are you going to use a gun, why?’” Ruiz told Valley News Live. “Because we want more viewers.”

Source: New York Daily News