The introduction of YouTube in 2005 it ushered in an unprecedented boom in video making never seen in history. Perhaps tapping in the tendency for humans to be voyeuristic, each video upload gets its share of eyeballs ranging from the tens to billions. The most viewed video on YouTube so far is still Gangnam Style, which already has almost 2.9 billion views.

Many YouTube Channels can only dream of such number of views. But since it is just so easy to put up one’s own YouTube Channel as all it takes is an internet connection, a YouTube account, and a smartphone with a video camera that practically almost every internet user will be competing with each other, sometimes competing with pets that have their owns channel that one has to do something really attention grabbing to get those much needed views.

If one wants to monetize a YouTube video, then one really has to do more than just taking videos of brushing teeth in the morning as a good number of YouTubers are earning big bucks online with their viral videos. One name comes to mine --- the controversial PewDiePie and in airsoft, there is Novritsch who has achieved 2 million subscribers which is a first for an airsoft YouTube Channel.

But sometimes, the obsession in getting more famous on YouTube views can just go too far, or perhaps plain reckless and stupid, that it can lead to fatal results. There have been incidents on teens getting injured or killed for doing dangerous YouTube stunts with the latest being a pregnant teen who accidentally shoots her boyfriend dead while doing a YouTube video.

In a report on Buzzfeed, 19-year old Monalisa Perez was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter for killing her boyfriend, 22-year old Pedro Ruiz while filming a stunt for her YouTube channel last Monday. She is presently released on a US$7,000 jail bond with conditions that she does not possess any firearm and will have to wear a GPS monitor.

Monalisa Perez and Pedro Ruiz (YouTube)

Perez called up 911 to inform them that she accidentally shot her boyfriend on the chest when they were making a YouTube video at their home in Minnesota. Responders found Ruiz with a gunshot wound and tried to save him. Ruiz died at the scene.

Perez told the police that that Ruiz told her to shoot a book he was holding for their YouTube video, believing that the book will stop the bullet. Before the incident happened, she tweeted that they were about to conduct a dangerous video, telling her Twitter followers that it was her boyfriend’s idea, not hers.

Her YouTube channel, which she started last March 2017, shows videos on challenges, stunts and pranks. Also seen in the channel is their three-year-old daughter. As for the fatal stunt, she mentioned that Ruiz have been trying to convince her for “a while” to shoot the book for her YouTube video showing her another book that a bullet was not able to penetrate. With a .50 Desert Eagle pistol, which is a rather powerful handgun, she shot Ruiz while he was holding a book a foot away. Authorities found the pistol lying on the grass outside the house and took it away together with the cameras used for filming for evidence.

In a report at Valley News Live, Ruiz’s aunt tried to convince him not to do the gun stunt, but he told her that they want to get more YouTube views in order to get more famous.

The last video on Perez’s channel was Ruiz doing stunts at a fair. Perez is 25 weeks pregnant with their second child.

If convicted of second-degree manslaughter, Perez faces 10 years in prison, a US$20,000 fine, or both.

Top photo: IWI .50 Desert Eagle (Wikipedia)