Videos Released of Fatal YouTube Stunt

Minnesota teen begged her boyfriend not to do it
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 24, 2018 9:40 AM CDT
Updated Jun 24, 2018 10:10 AM CDT

A Minnesota teen wept and begged her boyfriend to abandon a YouTube stunt, but he wouldn't cave—and a little while later he was dead. Authorities have released transcripts, evidence, and videos showing Pedro Ruiz, 22, as he directs girlfriend Monalisa Perez to fire a .50 caliber handgun through a hardcover encyclopedia he was holding last year outside their home in Halstad, the Star Tribune reports. Perez, now 20, got 180 days in jail for second-degree manslaughter and was banned from owning firearms for life. Now the details are out: "I can't do it babe," she tells Ruiz as the fatal moment approaches. "I'm so scared." But Ruiz says he wants his videos to make money and be "crazier" than the MTV series, Jackass.

"The most trustworthy person that I trust in this world is my girlfriend, Monalisa," says Ruiz, per the AP. "So if I die, I'm pretty much ready to go to heaven right now." She begs, "Babe, I'm not doing this, I can't," adding, "Babe, if I kill you what's gonna happen to my life. Like no this isn't OK. I don't want to be responsible." Perez was visibly pregnant at the time with the couple's second child, but Ruiz was confident, having practiced the shot on another encyclopedia. "Come in a little bit more, little more," he urges as she keeps trying to dissuade him. When it happens, the bullet throws Perez back and he dies on the scene. (See a video excerpt here without the fatal shot, or see what Perez tweeted hours after Ruiz was found dead outside their home.)

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