Fame! I'm (not) going to live forever

[Gob]

A Minnesota woman has been charged over the fatal shooting of her boyfriend, in what authorities say was a social media stunt gone wrong.



Monalisa Perez, 19, was booked into county jail after shooting at Pedro Ruiz as he held a book to his chest, believing it would stop the bullet.

The couple's three-year-old child and nearly 30 onlookers watched as she fired the fatal bullet into his chest.

Ruiz's aunt said they did it to increase their social media following.

Claudia Ruiz told WDAY-TV that her nephew had told her he wanted to do the stunt "because we want more viewers, we want to get famous".

"He had told me about that idea and I said, 'Don't do it. Don't do it. Why are you going to use a gun? Why?'" Claudia Ruiz told the news channel.

"They were in love, they loved each other," she said. "It was just a prank gone wrong."

Ms Perez, who is pregnant, is facing charges of second degree manslaughter. She faces her first court appearance on Wednesday.

County Attorney James Brue described the book as a hardcover encyclopaedia, and said the weapon used was a .50-calibre Desert Eagle handgun.

Police have seized two cameras, which are said to have recorded Monday's incident.

The single gunshot was fired from about one foot (30cm) away as neighbours gathered to watch outside their Minnesota home.

She told deputies that the stunt had been Ruiz's idea, and that he had to convince her to do it.

Earlier that day she tweeted about her reservations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40438207

[Joe Guy]

You can learn a lot from books.

[Scooter]

The single gunshot was fired from about one foot (30cm) away as neighbours gathered to watch outside their Minnesota home.

And there wasn't a single person among this group of Einsteins that said, whoa, hold on a sec here...?

How about charging the lot of them with criminal facilitation, or something. I don't care if it can be made to stick, requiring them to shell out for lawyers and dirty their pants a bit should be enough of a lesson for being spectators to this level of idiocy.

[BoSoxGal]

It might have worked with a smaller caliber, books have been known to block bullets. Have you guys seen a .50 caliber?! It's like a frickin hand cannon!



They clearly had zero understanding of basic physics.

[Burning Petard]

Basic ignorance. Alot of it going around. As our president has said on several occasions, "Nobody knew!"

Local tv news tonight had item about 'fireworks and the fourth' About how dangerous they are. My wife grew up in Michigan where they were outlawed. I grew up in Missouri where they were available everywhere to anybody for about a month before' Independence Day'
I burned my feet walking around the front yard barefoot, while playing with sparklers and roman candles, at age 5. The wire from a burned out sparkler is still very hot. Fire crackers were the thing. Started with'lady fingers, snakes, torpedoes because they were cheap. Eventually could scrape up the cash for cherry bombs and M80's which were notable because they would explode underwater! I knew of NOBODY in my neighborhood who was ever injured by fireworks bad enough to need more than home medicine cabinet first aid.

And these 'kids' playing with a 50 cal Desert Eagle thought an Encyclopedia would stop it. I call them kids because they clearly had no intellectual or emotional maturity even equal to the 8 year olds I knew playing with firecrackers.

Later addendum. I would not suggest them for the Darwin Award--too late, they were already breeders.

snailgate.