A woman fatally shot her boyfriend in a YouTube stunt to“boost her online profile”.
Monalisa Perez from Minnesota claimed after being charged in the shooting that it was a stunt gone badly wrong.
Perez, who is pregnant, was charged on Wednesday with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Pedro Ruiz.
According to a criminal complaint, 19-year-old Perez told authorities Ruiz wanted to make a YouTube video of her shooting a bullet into a book he was holding against his chest.
She says she fired from about 0.3m away and then fled the house, screaming.
Authorities say 22-year-old Ruiz died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Their three-year-old daughter was reportedly at the scene when the shot was fired at about 6.30pm on Monday.
Perez told deputies the stunt had been Ruiz's idea, and that he had to convince her to do it.
The book was supposed to stop the bullet in order to create a viral video.
The victim's aunt, Claudia Ruiz, said the couple played pranks and put them on YouTube.
Ruiz's aunt said Perez carried out the stunt as she wanted to increase her online profile by gaining more followers on social media.
Ruiz said her nephew had told her he wanted to do the stunt "because we want more viewers, we want to get famous".
"They were in love, they loved each other," she said. "It was just a prank gone wrong."
Perez tweeted about the stunt before it happened.
She wrote: "Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever HIS idea not MINE."
She also posted on Facebook an hour before the incident, writing: "We are in the process of making Pedro a YouTube channel oh man is it going to be sweet! LOL."
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