Hotel guest who met Reddock: 'He could have killed me next'

Action News Jax reporter Lorena Inclan will be live from Daytona Beach with an update on this story for CBS47 at 5. 

A man who met Joe Reddock early Thursday had no idea he had befriended a man wanted for murder in St. Johns County.

The scene unfolded outside the Regency Inn off U.S. 1 in Daytona Beach, where Reddock reportedly holed up after he left his family's Ponte Vedra Beach home.

Reddock'a father, also named Joe, was found dead in the home Wednesday, triggering a manhunt for Reddock.

Reddock, 41, was found dead on the bed with a female, suspected to be his newlywed wife Samantha. A large stash of weapons was found in the room, Daytona Beach Police said.

A police officer serving an unrelated warrant to Room 164 saw Reddock's 1999 Honda Accord and ran the tag number and alerted SWAT. Reddock was staying in Room 165.

Robert Lee, a guest at the Regency Inn, said he drank a beer with Reddock only hours before police moved in.

Lee met Reddock in the parking lot of the motel.

"Me and fiancée was arguing and she sat out here, so I came out here to check on her," Lee said. "He offered me a beer so I drank a beer with him."

Lee said police woke him up at 4:30 a.m.

"They just said, 'Someone has an AK-47 in your parking lot and you need to leave,'" Lee said.

Reddock's room was two doors down.

"[I'm] lucky to be alive," Lee said. "I shared a beer with a guy -- [and] he could've killed me next."

Cox Media Group