By Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writer
Monday, January 24, 2011
An acquaintance said Hydra Lacy Jr. “was well-known as a guy you didn’t want to cross.”
ST. PETERSBURG — Hydra Lacy Jr. was soft-spoken for such a big man, acquaintances say, but he had already left a tempestuous trail of violence long before he holed up in an attic Monday and killed two police officers.
Court records show two prison terms, starting when he was 17, and arrests for grand theft, aggravated battery, rape, kidnapping, attempted murder and resisting arrest with violence.
When police went looking for him Monday, he was on the lam for a domestic violence charge involving swords and broken liquor bottles.
Lacy, 39, was the oldest of nine children. His brother Jeff was a champion middleweight boxer. Another brother, Kenny, was due to make his professional boxing debut next month.
Dan Birmingham, who trained both Lacy ...