Monalisa Perez, an aspiring YouTube star from Minnesota, has been arrested after shooting her boyfriend in the chest and killing him.
But Perez says she did not intend to kill, or even injure, Pedro Ruiz III.
The fatality was the result of a stunt for horribly, terribly wrong.
According to court documents, Perez shot Ruiz with a gold Desert Eagle .50 caliber handgun, which is considered one of the most powerful pistols on the planet.
The incident took place on the grass outside of their home while he held up a hardcover encyclopedia to block the bullet.
The criminal complaint detailed how the shooting came about because Ruiz wanted to make a YouTube video in order to increase the pair’s following on their YouTube channel.
In a Twitter message posted not long before this tragedy transpired, Perez told followers what the couple had planned to to do:
To do so, Perez and Ruiz set up GoPro camera on the back of a car, placing another camera on a nearby ladder.
Once these were in place and the items were turned on, Perez picked up the aforementioned Desert Eagle and took aim at the encyclopedia Ruiz held in front of his chest.
The goal was for the book to block the bullet and for the couple to share the footage online.
However, the bullet instead traveled through the book and struck Ruiz in the chest.
Right away, Perez dialed 911 (around 6:30 p.m. local time on Monday) to report the she had accidentally shot her boyfriend in the chest, according to court documents.
But paramedics could not save him and Ruiz was pronounced dead at the scene.
Before going through with this stunt, Ruiz had practiced shooting books in similar fashion, showing his girlfriend how the bullets in these warm-up sessions did not penetrate the tomes.
Perez, who shot Ruiz from about a foot away, was charged with second-degree manslaughter.
She faces up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of $ 20,000.
“The case remains under investigation by the Norman County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota BCA,” Norman County Sheriff Jeremy Thornton said in a statement.
According to the couple’s YouTube channel, they have a three-year-old daughter and Perez is pregnant with their second.
This story may seem funny at first, but it’s a pretty major tragedy.
The two have been making YouTube videos together since May, typically filling their page with stunts, challenges, pranks and fails in an attempt to build traffic, go viral and make lots of money.
“Imagine when we have 300,000 subscribers,” Perez told Ruiz in the last video they made together and shared with followers. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh my god, hi!’”
Officials say the video of this fatal shooting will not be made public.