"It wasn't supposed to happen like this." "I didn't mean to hurt him, he was my everything," Perez said, breaking down during the interview. She said that after she pulled the trigger, Ruiz "like flew back and he looked down and he said, 'Oh shit,' and then right away I went to him, I was like, 'Babe, oh my God,' and I ran inside and called 911." She said that Ruiz was standing so close to her that she could touch him. She said that Ruiz had practiced the stunt using another book and the bullet hadn't gone through it. In an interview with authorities after the shooting, Perez said she had repeatedly refused Ruiz's requests to carry out the book stunt for more than a month. Ruiz told them that he would start making money on the videos once he reached 10,000 views or followers. Two weeks before the incident, the couple had told Perez's parents that they were planning to make money by creating YouTube videos.
"He wanted to see if I could shoot his gun in a book and it went and shot him and it’s all on recording," Perez told the operator. In a 911 call after the shooting, a hysterical Perez told the operator, "We were doing a YouTube stunt and it went wrong." The bullet that Ruiz had described as a "cannon" went through the encyclopedia he was holding and into his chest. But I have confidence that my girlfriend will hit the book and not me." He probably won't accept me into the pearly gates because of how stupid this is. "So if I'm gonna die, I'm pretty much ready to go to heaven right now," Ruiz said, looking into the camera. He called his girlfriend the "most trustworthy person in the world." "I'm going to stand behind it and Monalisa is going to shoot. "The ultimate test is to see if this 50-caliber bullet will go through a book," Ruiz was recorded saying. In one video recorded on the day of his death, Ruiz ominously predicted the outcome of the stunt he had conceived for his YouTube channel. On Friday, Norman County Attorney James Brue released multiple videos, photos, and transcripts to media organizations, including BuzzFeed News, that captured the chilling moments before and after Perez fatally shot her boyfriend during their ill-fated attempt to go viral. Earlier this year, she was sentenced to 180 days in jail. He died at the scene.Ī few days later, Perez was charged with second-degree manslaughter for the death of her 22-year-old boyfriend. Babe," Ruiz said, the last words recorded his first video.Īuthorities found Ruiz with a gunshot wound to his chest. Perez told him to "go back more," but Ruiz refused, urging the teen to shoot the gun. As long as you hit the book, you'll be fine. "Babe, if I kill you what's going to happen to my life," Perez said. "Come on," Ruiz said, urging his girlfriend to pull the trigger. Now, Perez, who had previously refused to go along with the dangerous stunt, was getting cold feet again. 50-caliber bullet can go through a book," Ruiz had said earlier.
"The point of the video is, I just really want to see if a.
50-caliber Desert Eagle handgun at Ruiz who was holding an encyclopedia in front of his chest.Ī GoPro camera on the couple's car and another camera on a ladder were recording what was supposed to be Ruiz's first video stunt for the YouTube channel he had named "Damitboy." Perez, then 19 and pregnant with the couple's second child, was pointing a loaded. I can't," Monalisa Perez told her boyfriend of six years, Pedro Ruiz, outside their home in Halstad, Minnesota, last June.