ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Authorities exchanged more than 100 shots with a fugitive holed up in an attic yesterday in a firefight that killed two officers, wounded a deputy US marshal, and led to an hourslong standoff that ended when the suspect was found dead inside the house.

St. Petersburg police spokesman Michael Puetz said the suspect's body was found when officers went into the home yesterday afternoon about six hours after the shootout, the latest in a rash of shootings across the nation that have killed or wounded law enforcement officers.

Police had come to the home to arrest Hydra Lacy Jr., 39, around 7 a.m. on an aggravated battery charge, and investigators believe he is the one who opened fire on the officers, Puetz said.

He said Lacy's long record includes convictions for armed robbery and sexual battery. Lacy had been listed as a sex offender with the state since 1996 and failed to register in December with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department, a procedure required four times a year. Deputies had been looking for him since last month, and local officers had been told Friday to look out for Lacy.

"He was somebody we wanted to get off the streets,' Police Chief Chuck Harmon said.

The shooting occurred four days after two Miami-Dade County detectives were killed by a murder suspect they were trying to arrest. That suspect was killed by another detective.

On Sunday, a man opened fire in a Detroit police station, wounding four officers including a commander before he was shot and killed by police. The officers' injuries were not considered life-threatening.

In Lincoln City, Ore., yesterday, a police officer was critically wounded when he was shot during a traffic stop.

Detectives in Port Orchard, Wash., are investigating why a man ran from deputies and then opened fire in a Wal-Mart parking lot Sunday, sparking a shootout that killed him and a young woman who ran to him after he was shot. Two sheriff's deputies were shot but are expected to survive.