In one of the most Darwin Award-worthy performances of 2017, Monalisa Perez shot her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz III in the chest with a .50 caliber round from a Desert Eagle pistol last June, in search of YouTube immortality. Ruiz held a hardcover encyclopedia up against his chest, hoping it would be enough to stop the 300+ grain round. It wasn’t.
Apparently testing the concept before risking Ruiz’s life didn’t occur to the two video producers.
In December, Ms. Perez pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Now, video and a transcript of what lead up to the shooting has been released.
Ms. Perez was clearly reluctant to participate in the stunt. She begged her beau not to make her pull the trigger. Read the entire exchange here.
From argusleader.com:
According to the transcript, Perez pleads with her boyfriend “I can’t do it, babe. I’m so scared.” Ruiz tells her, “As long as you hit the book, you’ll be fine. Come on.”
“Babe, I’m not doing this, I can’t,” Perez said.
“Come on,” Ruiz replied.
“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.”
Sadly, Ruiz was too persuasive for Perez to resist.
Perez, 20, of Redfield, South Dakota, was sentenced earlier this year to 180 days in jail for second-degree manslaughter. Her sentence will be served in 30-day installments each year for six years.
And her attorney couldn’t present this video to a jury as evidence of natural selection at work?
I guess friends don’t let friends use Public Defenders.
No Jury. Plea Bargain. If the prosecution had this and withheld it from the defense it may still be a Brady Violation.
WTH, .50 cal Desert Eagle used, yet at the 52 second mark of the video investigator is shown holding a .45 ACP shell.
I noticed and was going to ask the very same thing. Whats up with that? Bad stock photo?
yet virtually all the covearge I have seen on this is all about the implement, whereas other equally moronic deaths in these Instagram and youtube hit “daredevil phenomena” are about the trend generally.
“Daredevil” and self cause your death with a gun: it is all about guns. Do it leaning from a building ledge: it is about daredevil for internet hits phenomena in general and not the building (or ground or gravity) killing you.
At :52 in the video, whoever’s gathering evidence is holding a “FEDERAL 45 AUTO” case.
Prosecutorial Discretion apparently never occurred to this DA/ADA. this is insane.
I’m begging TTAG to stop “maker” mistakes that could be avoided with simple proofreading. It seems like I’m posting a comment like this every week. Mistakes, especially mistakes in titles, make us look like idiots.
Please show some pride in your work. These articles reflect poorly on the entire gun rights community. “Begged him not to maker her shoot” in the title tells me you’re just posting as fast as you can, and I question the validity of the entire article.
I have to agree, I really enjoy these articles but seldom do I read one that doesn’t have at least one spelling or grammatical error. Tighten it up, please and thank you.
Finally, someone noticed and fixed it. The last time there was an error in a headline they just waited for it to roll over to page 2.
Thank you, TTAG, for fixing this one.
TTAG, old or new management, can’t get it through their heads that spell checking is NOT proof reading.
> sentenced earlier this year to 180 days in jail for second-degree manslaughter. Her sentence will be served in 30-day installments each year for six years.
What? You can do that? That makes absolutely no sense.
Personally, give me the six months now when I am young than torture me with it for six years. Then I’d get time off for good behavior and would likely two months less time oint he pokey. She got the short end of the stick on this deal.
No…I believe her boyfriend did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZQZLgkYzo4
Considering 22 Plinkster took out a phone book with a mundane 22LR round doing this with a magnum caliber handgun is suicidal.
It’s homicidal actually…unless the person has really long arms.
It’s suicide by girlfriend in this case. It was completely his idea and she had to be talked into it pretty strenuously.
I agree. He didn’t want to do it himself so he duped her into it. Just listen to him and it’s obvious.
“Apparently testing the concept before risking Ruiz’s life didn’t occur to the two video producers.”
It doesn’t matter how many tests you’ve conducted beforehand or whether you’ve established a control. If you willingly step in front of a loaded weapon and have the trigger pulled, then don’t expect the rest of us to write any songs about you when your dumb ass is done bleeding out.
Right you are. Death by girlfriend , this kid deffinetly had a death wish. He got it.
The ghost of ironicatbest says” This guy did not go to heaven. Saint Peter only accepts the souls of humans killed with 6.5 Creedmoore’s, St. Peter would like to but cannot accept .45 caliber deaths as they have no souls. And .9mm deaths are still in limbo.”
Amen! It’s about discipleship and getting as many souls in to heaven as possible! This is what all true beleivers are called to do! Repent! Convert from your sinful (.308 Win) ways and enbrace the way, the truth, and the light (6.5 CM)!
There are no documented .9mm deaths.
That’s only because the hole is so small, it makes it look like a heart attack.
On the one hand, I feel bad for the kids who won’t grow up with their father. On the other hand, I’m glad he won’t be around to fuck them up too.
I read somewhere that he did, in fact, “test” the stunt by shooting a different book against a hard backstop and the bullet didn’t go through for whatever reason. Darwin award all the same.
I thought that he tested it with a different book that was just standing up, which allowed it to move enabling it to absorb the energy better and therefor catch the bullet
I read he did test it by hanging the book on a string, which did stop the bullet because the book was allowed to move and absorb the energy. When he held it flat against himself the remaining energy couldn’t be absorbed through.
Think about how they use sheets of whatever material to stop golf balls at short distances. Those sheets are just hanging freely. If they were taut then they wouldn’t last as long.
Its called natural selection
I’m shocked to see that the guy who’s safety conscious enough to take a bullet to the chest is waving a loaded gun around with his finger on the trigger. He’s breaking all three safety rules simultaneously.
Is it loaded? Hammer is down, so it’s not going to fire, even with his finger on the trigger… I don’t see him ‘waving’ it around, either… Looks like he’s holding it vertical, not pointing at anything in particular… Oh, but we didn’t see the obligatory and ritualistic “see the chamber is empty”, so it must be loaded…
… why they didn’t test this out first is because they only had one hardcover encyclopedia.
Obviously a dumb low budget ‘operation’!
He obviously didn’t read the encyclopedia under the heading “bullet penetration”
Or under “Darwin awards”
Doesn’t this fall under the category of “Hey, everybody! Watch this!” last words? Too bad he had to get his girlfriend involved – I’m sure he could have found some way to rig the pistol in a vice and attach a string to the trigger. But, considering that she did do it, I think she got off pretty light.
While his death is unfortunate a very small part of me is glad that someone this incredibly stupid is not going to be around to pollute the gene pool.
She’s already carrying his offspring. Their kid will repeat the cycle in 15-20 years by doing a BMX jump while his pregnant girlfriend shoots an object off the top of his head (like the the top of his head).
I feel bad for the girl, who destroyed a perfectly useful book.
Lord I hope there ain’t a Pedro IV!😧 Right up there with “just the tip baby”…
But it worked with the LCP!
Stupid as they both are, this whole story is really just sad. One life wasted and one life ruined for no reason at all.
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