Gun stunt to 'attract more viewers' leaves one young parent dead and the other in jail charged with his murder.
Pedro Ruiz, 22, and Monalisa Perez, 19, both from Minnesota, were looking for fame through social media. The young couple, parents to a three-year-old child and expecting a second in September, started a YouTube channel in March 2017 aiming to show "the real life of a young couple who happen to be teen parents."
The couple decided to do a stunt on June 26. It involved Ruiz holding an encyclopedia to his chest while Perez shot the book from a distance of 12 inches with a .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun. A crowd of nearly 30 gathered to watch, including the couple's three-year-old child, while two cameras recorded the event. The hardcover encyclopedia failed to stop the fired bullet, ultimately killing Ruiz.
Earlier in the day, Perez had posted the following to her Twitter account:
According to reports, Ruiz had previously tried the stunt with another book and the bullet did not exit.
Perez is facing charges of second degree manslaughter. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. She has told deputies the stunt was Ruiz's idea, and that he had to convince her to do it.
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