Wannabe Houdini Killed During Failed Effort to Make Viral YouTube Video

An attempt to make a viral YouTube video went terribly awry after a Minnesota couple badly miscalculated a stunt that ended up with one of the participants in the morgue.

Pedro Ruiz III had a brainstorm that turned out to be a brain fart when he had the genius idea that an encyclopedia would be able to stop a bullet.

He was wrong. Dead wrong.

The magic trick ended up with Ruiz in the great beyond but his pregnant girlfriend 19-year-old Monalisa Perez is facing criminal charges for pulling the trigger.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports “Minnesota woman charged with fatally shooting boyfriend in failed YouTube video stunt”:

Monalisa Perez and her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz III, appeared in numerous YouTube videos and talked about trying to attract more viewers.

As part of a young couple’s quest for YouTube fame, a 19-year-old woman shot at a book her boyfriend was holding against his chest, killing him at close range outside their northwestern Minnesota home.

Monalisa Perez was charged Wednesday with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting of her boyfriend, 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III, Monday night in Halstad.

Perez, who is pregnant, appeared from jail by video at a Norman County District Court proceeding Wednesday. She posted $7,000 cash bail and was released late Wednesday afternoon.

Ruiz held up the book — described by County Attorney James Brue as a hardcover encyclopedia — and Perez pulled the trigger on a .50-caliber Desert Eagle pistol, trying to see whether the bullet would go through, according to the criminal complaint.

A few hours before the shooting, a posting went up on Perez’s Twitter account that read: “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE.” The note included two wide-eyed emoji faces and another of an eye-covering monkey with a gaping mouth.

The Star Tribune story reports that Ruiz has strongly discouraged by his aunt but the “little daredevil” shunned her advice.

You really have to wonder what went into the thought process on this one but apparently, it wasn’t very much.