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A TEEN has admitted accidentally shooting her boyfriend dead in a YouTube stunt gone wrong.

Monalisa Perez, 19, claimed her lover Pedro Ruiz wanted to film a video of her shooting a bullet into a book he was holding against his chest. Here are all the facts.

 Monalisa Perez is accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend Pedro Ruiz
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Monalisa Perez is accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend Pedro RuizCredit: YouTube

Who was Pedro Ruiz?

YouTubers Pedro Ruiz, 22, and his girlfriend Perez, from Minnesota, started making their own videos for their channel - La MonaLisa - back in March.

In the About section, they describe their channel as "real life of a young couple who happen to be teen parents".

Clips from the couple's YouTube mainly comprise of daily vlogs and simple pranks they pull on each other.

Pranks include hiding hot chilli in each other's sandwiches and putting baby powder as icing sugar on a doughnut.

 Ruiz toying with a gun in an earlier YouTube video
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Ruiz toying with a gun in an earlier YouTube video

 

Ruiz has a three-year-old daughter with Perez, who was seven months pregnant with their second child at the time of the shooting.

She has since given birth.

Aside from performing pranks and stunts on YouTube, adrenaline-enthusiast Ruiz also posted videos of himself chasing storms on Facebook.

Ruiz was a railroad worker, who had lived with foster parents before graduating high school, according to a published obituary.

He died on Monday, June 26, 2017.

What happened to Pedro Ruiz?

According to a criminal complaint, his girlfriend told authorities Ruiz wanted to make a YouTube video of her shooting a bullet into a book he was holding against his chest.

She says she fired from about a foot away.

Authorities say Ruiz died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

His death was captured on two cameras that had been set up to record the stunt.

Their three-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, was reportedly present when the shooting occurred.

Prior to the incident, Perez had bragged about the stunt on her Twitter account.

She wrote: “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE."

 Pregnant Monalisa Perez was charged with second-degree manslaughter
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Pregnant Monalisa Perez was charged with second-degree manslaughterCredit: YouTube

Ruiz's aunt, Claudia Ruiz, said Perez would never deliberately hurt her nephew.

She told Valley News Live: "They were in love. They loved each other. It was just a prank gone wrong. It shouldn't have happened like this.

"He had told me about an idea. I said, don't do it, don't do it. Why are you going to use a gun? Why? Because, we want more viewers.

"I don't know why they thought the book was supposed to stop the bullet."

Will Monalisa Perez go to jail?

In December 2017, Perez pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter and agreed to serve a six-month prison sentence.

In a deal with prosecutors, Perez agreed to serve three months in jail in one-month increments over three years, and then serve the other three months under house arrest.

She will also be subject to 10 years of probation and a lifetime ban from possessing firearms.

As part of her plea deal, Perez agreed to not seek financial gain from her case.

Family and friends said at the time that the death was an accident and that Ruiz had been talking about performing the stunt for some time.

What did Monalisa Perez say when she called 911?

Perez told the 911 call handler her boyfriend had been shot, saying: “‘We were doing a YouTube video and it went wrong. Please hurry up.

“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.

“Please someone hurry up. He’s gonna die.”

After being asked if Ruiz was alert, she added: “I don’t know he’s outside. My phone is about to die so I came in to charge it and call you guys.

“Can I go outside?”

Then, after checking outside, she returned, telling the dispatcher: “Oh, my God, he’s dead.

“He looks like he’s dying ma’am. He’s all blue… please hurry up ma’am.

“He’s like dying. He’s dying.”



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