Transcripts released in case of fatal YouTube stunt shooting
Pregnant girlfriend pleaded with boyfriend not to go through with YouTube shooting stunt.
A transcript and portions of a video show a Minnesota woman who was urged by her boyfriend to shoot him for a YouTube stunt gone wrong tried to resist.
The Norman County prosecutor on Friday released the transcript and portions of the video Pedro Ruiz III, 22, took with his girlfriend, Monalisa Perez, 20, last year. The final video of the incident was not released because Norman County Attorney James Brue said it was “clearly offensive to common sensibilities.”
According to court documents, the couple had prepared the stunt hoping for it to go viral.
Police said the couple set up two cameras outside their Halstad home. Their 3-year-old daughter and almost 30 other people were watching.
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Perez, who was pregnant at the time with their second child, was heard in the video telling Ruiz she could not shoot him. Ruiz asked his girlfriend to shoot him with a .50 caliber handgun while he held an encyclopedia to his chest. He assured her that he had done it before with a different book.
“I can’t do it babe,” she said. “I’m so scared. [inaudible] my heart is beating out of [inaudible].”
“Babe, if I kill you what’s gonna happen to my life. Like no, this isn’t OK,” she said. “I don’t want to be responsible.”
Monalisa Perez, 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in the shooting of her boyfriend Pedro Ruiz and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. (Northwest Regional Corrections/YouTube)
“As long as you hit the book, you’ll be fine. Come on.” Ruiz told her.
The bullet went through the book, killing Ruiz on June 26, 2017.
In December 2017, Perez pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter. She was sentenced to 180 days in jail. She will serve her sentence in 30-day installments each year for six years.
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Before his death, Ruiz was an up-and-coming YouTube star. The couple had a presence on the site by performing pranks including eating a doughnut with baby powder sprinkled on. However, his new YouTube channel was going to follow him doing outrageous stunts, FOX 9 reported. Ruiz said he was inspired by MTV shows “Jack---” and “Nitro Circus.”
“I may fail, but if I fail I want to die trying. We’re all going to die anyways – it’s just a matter of how and when,” Ruiz was heard saying in one of his videos.
In another video released by prosecutors, Ruiz was heard saying he could die from the stunt but had “confidence that my girlfriend will hit the book and not me.”
“So if I’m going to die, I’m pretty much ready to go to heaven right now. If I die, I’ll be ready for Jesus. He probably won’t accept me into the pearly gates because of how stupid this is, but I have confidence that my girlfriend will hit the book and not me,” he said.
Fox News' Lucia Suarez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
