Joe Frazier's step-grandson killed by stray bullet in bar

Peter Lyde Jr. - step-grandson of Philadelphia boxing legend Joe Frazier and stepson of Common Pleas Judge Jacqui Frazier-Lyde - was killed early yesterday by a stray bullet while he was working at a North Philadelphia bar, according to Lyde's father.

Lyde, of Old York Road near Luzerne Street, in Hunting Park, was shot in the chest at Pleasures bar, 22nd Street and Ridge Avenue, North Philadelphia, about 1:18 a.m., police said.

He was pronounced dead about a half-hour later at Hahnemann University Hospital, police said.

His father, Peter Lyde Sr., said that his son "had just been hired at the bar for its grand opening" as one of two security guards.

After a patron and bartender argued, the elder Lyde said, two other men joined in, then pulled out firearms and shot at one another.

"He never saw these guys before," Lyde Sr. said. "He had nothing to do with them or [the argument]. Then a bullet hit him. I'm devastated. My wife is devastated.

"She hears something like 65 cases a day and sees too much of this kind of thing. She always says, 'I'm not going to go to my own kids' funerals.' For this to happen to our kid . . . it's very disturbing."

Joe Frazier's business manager Les Wolff confirmed the ex-boxer's relation to Lyde, but said that he didn't want to comment, as it was a "private matter." *

Staff writers Regina Medina and Bernard Fernandez contributed to this report.