Police: Naked man was smoking crack before jumping from truck

A mugshot of John Rodas from 2015 after he was arrested for second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct in Fairfield. He turned up in Ridgefield naked Sunday morning on Route 7, where he hoped into the bed of a pickup truck. He eventually jumped from the truck as it was moving and sustained life-threatening head injuries. Redding police say the naked man did drugs in his hotel room before taking his clothes off. less A mugshot of John Rodas from 2015 after he was arrested for second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct in Fairfield. He turned up in Ridgefield naked Sunday morning on Route 7, where he hoped into the bed ... more Photo: Fairfield Citizen Photo: Fairfield Citizen Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Police: Naked man was smoking crack before jumping from truck 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Redding Police Chief Mark O'Donnell confirmed that John Rodas — the man who suffered life-threatening head injuries after jumping out of a moving truck in north Wilton on Sunday morning — was smoking crack in his hotel room at the Days Inn before he got naked and ran out onto Route 7.

"The naked man was staying at the Days Inn in Redding on Route 7 doing drugs in his room decided to get naked," Chief O'Donnell told Hearst on Monday afternoon.

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O'Donnell said that Rodas, 34, ran around Route 7 near the Days Inn before he "jumped into the back of a slow moving pick up."

The truck operator kept driving and called 911.

"When on Route 7, the naked man decided to jump out in Wilton," O'Donnell said. "Wilton is investigating that. Redding [is] investigating any subsequent evidence in the room at the Days Inn."

The Ridgefield Police Department said it would not be investigating the case.

Lt. Rob Kluk of the Wilton Police Department said that Rodas was lying on the side of Route 7 naked when the incident started.

"The driver thought he was an animal," Lt. Kluk said. "He jumped into the bed of the truck because all the other doors were locked. That's when the driver of the truck called 911 and Ridgefield and Redding got involved. We got a call as the car was headed southbound ... He ended up jumping out of the truck as it was driving and he did so about 50 past the Wilton town line, and that's why we're doing the investigation into the car accident."

Lt. Kluk said as far as he knew Rodas was still in critical condition.

"Nobody has been able to speak him so we don't know how he got here and what exactly he was doing here," Lt. Kluk said. "The driver of the truck told us everything else that's in the report — it doesn't contain much information about the guy who jumped other than that he was naked when he hoped in and that he at first thought it was a dead animal on the side of the road."

Background

Rodas was previously charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct and refusal to be fingerprinted in Norwalk two years ago after he bit his roommate during an argument over money.

"The caller told police Rodas had accused the victim of taking his money to purchase drugs," read a story in The Hour from July 2017. "A verbal dispute escalated into a physical altercation when police said Rodas bit the reported victim twice on the side of the face. As the alleged victim attempted to leave, police said Rodas pushed them down the stairs."

He was held on a $25,000 bond, The Hour reported.

According to that same story, Rodas was convicted in June 2015 of assault on a police officer, for which he received a five-year suspended sentence, one year served, and three years probation. He was additionally convicted of possession of narcotics in Norwalk in August 2015.

The 2015 narcotics arrest happened after Rodas was alleged to have been smoking crack cocaine in view of a police officer, according to The Hour.

A Fairfield Citizen News story from June 2015 highlighted another Rodas arrest — this one in Fairfield. in Fairfield. Police said Rodas, then 30, chased his brother around their apartment with a boxcutter in a dispute over money. He was charged with second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct.