Death of Pedro Ruiz III

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Overview

The Death of Pedro Ruiz III refers to the controversy surrounding the death of the YouTuber after being shot by his girlfriend, Monalisa Perez, while filming a stunt for YouTube. Perez later pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

Background

On June 26th, 2017, YouTuber Monalisa Perez announced on Twitter ^[1] that she and her boyfriend and video-producing partner, Pedro Ruiz III, would be performing a new stunt for their channel, La Monalisa.^[8] The two ran the channel together, posting stunts, which were generally non-violent. She tweeted, "Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever😳😳 HIS idea not MINE🙈." As of December 2017, the tweet (shown below) has received more than 3,100 retweets and 3,300 likes.

Later that night, Perez shot Ruiz while performing a stunt where in which she would fire a .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun at him, while he held a hardcover encyclopedia in front of his chest. The book, he believed, would stop the bullet. However, it did not work, and Ruiz was killed.^[2]

Development

Conviction

On December 15th, 2017, Perez pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter. The plea agreement requires that she serve 180 days in jail and spend 10 years on supervised probation. The sentence was to be carried out over three years with Perez spending 30 days in prison each year, followed by a six-month in-home jail sentence with electronic home monitoring. In addition, she is barred from making money off the video of the shooting and owning a handgun for the rest of her life.^[3]

Video Released

On June 22nd, 2018, the Norman County Prosecutor released a video and transcript of the video, showing Perez crying and pleading not to shoot her boyfriend prior to his death.

[This video has been removed]

Monalisa Perez: "I can't do it babe. I'm so scared. Babe if I kill you what's going to happen to my life? Like, no this isn’t okay… I don’t want to be responsible"

Media Coverage

Many news outlets covered the killing of Ruiz, including The Washington Post,^[4] Gizmodo,^[5] Time,^[6] NBC^[7] and more.

Notable Memes

Guns vs. Books Videos

Following Ruiz's death, many gun-related YouTube channels began posting videos of what happens when a .50 Calliber Desert Eagle is fired at a book (examples below).