The Night Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes Burned Down Her Boyfriend’s $1.3M Mansion

Back in 1994, one of the biggest pop stars burned down the Georgia mansion of one of the biggest NFL stars.

On June 9, 1994, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, of the Grammy Award-winning group TLC, set then-Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Andre Rison’s mansion ablaze, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In 1992, Lopes, along with bandmates Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, had gained early success with the release of their debut album “Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip.” Riding the wave of that success, she met Rison and the two had a “burning desire” for each other that “was too flammable from the start,” Trey Taylor wrote for Paper Magazine in 2019.

A year before the arson incident, the Superbowl champion was accused of assaulting Lopes in the parking lot of a Kroger supermarket.

According to the Greensboro News and Record, the couple arrived at the grocery store after leaving an Atlanta nightclub in September 1993. Rison allegedly began striking Lopes and two men attempted to intervene, Sgt. R.J. Dukes told the outlet. Rison then went to get a gun and shot the outside of the store’s building.

“First of all, I'd like to apologize to my organization and to my fans,' Rison is quoted as saying. “All I was doing was defending myself. It was a matter of a situation where I thought I might be hindered or harmed, and I protected myself.”

Rison was charged with aggravated assault and posted a $16,500 bond while Lopes was arrested for allegedly attacking a police officer and released on a $1,200 bond.

Fast forward to the night of June 8, 1994. According to Paper Magazine, both Rison and Lopes went out partying all night, although separately. Rison allegedly stayed out until 5 a.m.

When he arrived back to his Alpharetta, Georgia home, he was confronted by a furious Lopes who was allegedly screaming at the pro-baller in his driveway.

“I knew she’d been drinking some,” he told PEOPLE in a 1994 interview. “But I didn’t know what was upsetting her. I started taking blows to the face. Finally, I grabbed her and asked her what was wrong. But she kept coming at me.”

Rison also admitted he slapped Lopes.

“Not to hurt her, but to calm her. Didn’t work. We were inside the house now, and I picked her up and slammed her on the bed and sat on her,” he told PEOPLE. “I still couldn’t control her. So I left. I went on a 20-mile walk.

The PAPER account said that walk eventually turned into a stay at a teammate’s house, Jason Phillips, hoping matters would calm down.

But they didn’t. According to Boombox, Lopes allegedly set a pair of his sneakers on fire and put them in the bathtub. She then went outside and broke the windshields of two of Rison’s cars with a vacuum cleaner pipe.

On June 10, Lopes turned herself in after being charged with felony arson. She was released on bond at $75,000 and checked into rehab voluntarily shortly after.

At the time of her arrest, a lawyer for Lopes, Darryl Cohen, told PEOPLE that “Lisa is in fear of her life,” but Rison denied ever being a threat to her saying: “It hurts me because I’m not like that. We did everything together. Shopped, cooked, laughed, cried, went to nightclubs, parks, functions.

Despite Lopes destroying his $1.3 million home, Rison forgave her, even holding her hand at her sentencing. The couple had even still planned to get married according to Wired.

Lopes was sentenced to a halfway house and five years probation, plus a $10,000 fine.

Lopes, however, tragically died in a car accident in Honduras on April 27, 2002, according to the New York Times. The rapper had been in the country doing charity work.