Woman Shoots, Kills Boyfriend in Video Stunt Gone Wrong
A 19-year-old pregnant woman with plans of YouTube stardom is facing a second-degree manslaughter charge in Minnesota after she shot and killed her boyfriend as part of a video stunt gone terribly wrong, according to police.
Monalisa Perez of Halstad, Minnesota, said she accidentally killed 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III on Monday when she shot him in the chest, according to the criminal complaint against her, which was obtained by PEOPLE.
Ruiz is the father of Perez’s 3-year-old daughter and their unborn son, authorities said.
The two began posting videos to YouTube in May and hoped to grow their slowly-swelling popularity by filming a stunt in which Perez shot directly at an encyclopedia that Ruiz was holding in front of his chest, the complaint states.
Perez later told law enforcement that both she and Ruiz believed the book would stop the bullet, according to the complaint. They were filming outside Perez’s home, with two cameras mounted nearby.
In a tweet apparently sent by Perez earlier on Monday, she wrote, “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever