Aspiring Daredevil Social Media Star Killed During Stunt | Monalisa Perez & Pedro Ruiz Case Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Mona Lisa Perez and Pedro Ruiz just a reminder I'm not diagnosing about this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the crime and offer my analysis in 2017 Mona Lisa Perez and her boyfriend Pedro Ruiz lived in Halstead Minnesota this is a town of about 550 people that sits about 35 miles north of Fargo North Dakota Mona Lisa and Pedro had been together since Mona Lisa was 14 and Pedro was 16. they were together for six years and had a three-year-old daughter in May of 2017 Mona Lisa announced that she was pregnant with a boy Mona Lisa was a stay-at-home mom and Pedro worked at a railway company the couple operated a YouTube channel the description of their Channel read our Vlogs will show you the real life of a young couple who happen to be teen parents from highs to lows achievements to struggles join the fun follow our journey essentially the couple posted videos featuring their daily lives as well as pranks for example hiding hot peppers on an egg salad sandwich climbing on a tree branch and then falling and putting baby powder on Donuts at some point Pedro had an idea to start a new YouTube channel that would focus exclusively on him he envisioned this new channel as containing wild Behavior which he referred to as all the crazy stuff while Mona Lisa's channel would feature their family life for Pedro's first video he wanted to feature an earth-shattering stunt that would shock people into watching his channel he came up with the idea of having Mona Lisa discharge a firearm at a book that he would be holding in front of his chest under the theory that the book would stop the bullet the firearm that Pedro was going to use was a desert eagle semi-automatic pistol this particular gun was gold and had tiger stripes his pistol was chambered in 50 caliber action Express a cartridge that's extreme power is only matched by the tackiness of the gold color and tiger stripes I guess the idea from a self-defense perspective is that if firing the gun at an attacker does not stop them the gaudy and repulsive visual appearance of the weapon would scare the offender away Pedro tested the theory that a book would stop a bullet fired from the desert eagle apparently he conducted an experiment by shooting a book although it's not clear under what conditions or if it was the same type of book he intended to use and the stunt apparently Pedro obtained books from an abandoned house a few miles away as a result of this experiment with the book Pedro came to believe that he would be safe because the book stopped the bullet Pedro even showed Mona Lisa the book that he shot in the experiment the bullet was still in it Pedro was confident that he could reproduce the result for the stunt and use a video of the shooting to attract a lot of views it was supposed to be a death-defying stunt Mona Lisa was not interested in participating even after witnessing the results of the experiment but Pedro repeatedly begged her she was under pressure from Pedro for almost two months now moving to the timeline of the crime on June 26 2017 Mona Lisa posted a message on Twitter which read quote me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever his idea not mine unquote not long after a 22 year old Pedro came home from work he and 19 year old Mona Lisa prepared to make this exciting video Pedro set up two cameras outside their house one was on the back of a car and the other was attached to a ladder Pedro selected a hardcover encyclopedia to be the book that would protect him from the bullet it was an inch and a half thick the police did not release the video of the actual shooting but they did release some of the video recorded leading up to it and a transcript of the shooting itself in the video Pedro is standing outside and talking about the plans for his new channel he repeats several phrases during the video but it looks like he did this on purpose like he was trying to get the perfect take the video is going to be edited later presumably Pedro talked about how he loved adrenaline and near-death experiences he claimed that doing crazy things was relaxing and that he did crazy stuff so his viewers would not have to as if there was somebody watching who was thinking well I was going to engage in extremely dangerous Behavior today but luckily I don't have to because this Reckless guy from Minnesota posted a video Pedro considered himself to be crazy and stupid but implied that he was unfaced by these conditions he encouraged people to watch his videos until he failed Pedro talked about some of his role models who also engaged in dangerous stunts he said quote that's who I look up to but my purpose is to be crazier than them I may fail but if I fail I want to die trying we're all going to die anyways just a matter of how and when unquote Pedro commented on death Again by saying quote so if I'm going to die I'm pretty much ready to go to heaven right now if I die I'll be ready for Jesus he probably won't accept me into the Pearly Gates because of how stupid this is but I have confidence that my girlfriend will hit the book and not me let's do it unquote as I mentioned the video of what happened next was not released but the transcript was made available by the authorities as Mona Lisa and Pedro were trying to figure out how to align the pistol into what they believed would be the correct position Mona Lisa was clearly concerned she said babe I'm not going to do this I can't Pedro responded come on Mona Lisa said babe if I kill you what's going to happen in my life like no this isn't okay I don't want to be responsible Pedro maintained his confidence saying you won't as long as you hit the book as long as you hit the book you'll be fine come on the batteries are going to die on it come closer Mona Lisa said then you have to go back more Pedro responded no no just right there it's fine come on right there babe at this point Mona Lisa fired the desert eagle the gun was about one foot away from the book that Pedro was holding in front of his chest the bullet penetrated the book and struck Pedro he fell to the ground Mona Lisa said stop babe stop babe Mona Lisa ran into the house and called 9-1-1 at 6 30 PM she had to plug her phone in because the battery was at one percent she told the operator that the shooting was accidental and explained the plan paramedics attempted to revive Pedro but he did not survive Mona Lisa was charged with Reckless discharge of a gun but then she was given an upgrade to second-degree manslaughter under a plea agreement Mona Lisa pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter she was sentenced to 180 days in jail but was offered a creative way to serve the time she served 10 days in jail and 10 days out of jail for the first six months this took care of 90 days the other 90 days were served in home confinement she was also permitted to serve her time in South Dakota where she moved after the incident in addition to the jail time Mona Lisa was required to serve 10 years of supervised probation she was banned for life from owning Firearms not permitted to gain financially from the case and had to pay for Pedro's funeral Mona Lisa Perez moved on with her life after the incident she found a new boyfriend and they started a streetwear clothing brand in South Dakota now moving to my analysis hear my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one Pedro appeared to be sensation seeking Reckless and impulsive he was raised by an aunt because his mother died when he was young the aunt said that Pedro always put a dangerous Twist on everything he did like jumping off the top of a house into a swimming pool she referred to him as a little Daredevil one could argue that it was probably just a matter of time before Pedro died as a result of his own behavior item number two prior to the incident that ended his life Pedro was asked about his reason for performing the stunt he replied quote because we want more viewers we want to get famous imagine when we have three hundred thousand subscribers the bigger we get I'll be throwing parties why not unquote people tried to talk Pedro out of Performing this stunt but he went forward with it anyway it was something that he desperately wanted there's the sense that Pedro was fascinated with Fame it didn't matter how he gained it he was going to do anything to be a star item number three as I mentioned Pedro conducted a successful test where a book stopped a bullet fired by the desert eagle why didn't the book used in the stunt lead to the same result there could be any number of reasons the books may have been different sizes made of different materials the shot could have come from different angles from different distances I doubt that Pedro used a proper experimental design his reasoning skills did not appear to be that good for instance he wasn't too good at math in his video Pedro talked about the velocity of the bullet as being fifteen hundred feet per second he believed it would travel three football fields in a second three football fields without the end zones would be 900 feet when counting the end zones the length would still only be 1080 feet item number four there's something strangely fitting about this case involving the shooting of an encyclopedia knowledge was definitely one casualty of this incident Pedro found the book in an abandoned house it would appear as though he didn't even have his own book that should have been the first clue to him that his knowledge was too limited to attempt any type of dangerous stunt item number five was Justice served in this case some people believe that Mona Lisa escaped Justice others believed that being convicted of anything was unfair in this case looking at the factors that Mona Lisa's punishment was too light Mona Lisa pointed a pistol at her boyfriend and fired it at close range there's no question that this caused his death this case did not involve self-defense Pedro's intent was not to die and Mona Lisa knew her behavior was dangerous she repeatedly acknowledged how it could cause Pedro's death looking at the factors that Mona Lisa's punishment was too severe she was only 19 when the incident occurred her 20th birthday was nine days after the shooting Pedro came up with the idea and pressured her for almost two months Mona Lisa repeatedly warned him that she believed he could die and Pedro reassured her that he would be fine as long as she hit the book she did in fact hit the book Pedro even showed Mona Lisa another book that had successfully stopped a bullet Mona Lisa did not understand how Firearms worked and falsely believed that Pedro did according to Mona Lisa Pedro had been manipulative in the relationship telling her things like she wasn't good enough and he could find someone better than her it appears as though Pedro had a degree of control over Mona Lisa when looking at all the evidence my opinion is that Mona Lisa's punishment was too severe it's clear from the video that Pedro is the only one who caused his own death he was the driving force behind the shooting this was his idea this was his dream Pedro absolutely wanted this to happen Mona Lisa was clearly uncomfortable with what Petro was asking her to do and it was Pedro's actions that motivated her to pull the trigger I think that Mona Lisa should have been convicted of a lesser charge and then given the opportunity to have a record expunged if she completed a few hours of community service now moving to my final thoughts the demise of Pedro teaches an important lesson to those looking to make a living through excitement seeking Fame doesn't really impart any benefit if a person is not alive to enjoy it Pedro wanted to perform a stunt so shocking that his audience would be blown away ultimately he did accomplish the Blown Away part but not in the way he intended those are my thoughts in the case of Mona Lisa Perez and Pedro Ruiz please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 162,624

Keywords:

Id: eAYZweropFA

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023