Seeking YouTube Fame, A Teenager Kills Her Boyfriend (arstechnica.com)

Last Monday a 19-year-old woman named Monalisa Perez gave the police a strange reason for why her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz III, was dead. An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica: A Minnesota woman has been charged with manslaughter after she shot and killed her boyfriend as part of the pair's attempt to become YouTube celebrities... The two had set up two video cameras to capture Perez firing the gun at Ruiz while he held a book in front of his chest. Ruiz apparently convinced Perez that the book would stop the bullet from a foot away. The gun, a Desert Eagle .50 caliber pistol, was not hindered by the book. Ruiz, who was found with a single gunshot in his chest, was pronounced dead at the scene. Hours before the incident, Perez posted on Twitter, "Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE."
The teenager -- who is pregnant with the couple's second child -- now faces second-degree manslaughter charges, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $20,000, or both. A local sheriff told the New York Times, "I really have no idea what they were thinking. I just don't understand the younger generation on trying to get their 15 minutes of fame."

Comments

Re:And the sheriff doesn't understand?

[blindseer]

Frying pans specifically or just improvised bludgeons in general? I can't imagine too many deaths by frying pan but I do recall reading how the sale of baseball bats go up with every street riot.

Murder rates generally are unchanged or go up with restrictions on gun ownership. I can't imagine death by stupidity would be changed by gun control laws either. This guy was looking to get killed, jumping off of roofs and driving go-carts like mad.

I'm paraphrasing Penn Gillette who said something like passing insane laws to stop the insane from doing insane things is itself insane.