News 12 at 6 o'clock, August 21, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga -- Investigators in two counties agree Otis Pearce is getting more violent from burglaries to escape to home invasions to kidnapping. Now they need your help to find him before he strikes again.

"He's dangerous, real dangerous." Gene Trotter still visibly shaken after what happened Saturday. Deputies say Otis Pearce broke in his home and beat him with a metal pipe.

"It was like 4 o'clock in the morning and I was sleeping on the couch when I heard a knock so I got up and come answered the door and soon as I saw who it was, he hit me upside the head with a piece of steal pipe and he knocked me up against the wall and grabbed me." Deputies say Trotter was Pearce's third hit of the night.

He also broke into two of his neighbors homes. There, investigators say Pearce beat another man, assaulted a teenage girl and briefly kidnapped her father.

"He was on a rampage for something." adds Trotter.

Deputies believe money and pills. These were the latest in a string of crimes in Richmond County Pearce is accused of that began with a burglary August 4th on Hephzibah-McBean Road.

After that burglary, deputies say Pearce got into a car accident and they brought him here to the MCG emergency room. They suspected he may have been drinking and driving and they knew he was a wanted man so they worked with MCG police to keep him from fleeing, but at some point, Otis Pearce got up and walked out.

Pearce escaped arrest again just a few days later in Burke County. When officers served a search warrant on his home, they found evidence, but Pearce went out the back window.

"Due to his violent nature in the past, what happened over the weekend, we don't know what his next move is." explains Richmond County Sheriff's Office Investigator Shawn Newsome.

And neither does Gene. That's why he says he's moving. "I just can't take a chance. Next time it might not be a pipe, it may be a gun."

Pearce is described as a white male, 6 foot, 3 inches and 335 pounds. He's 42 years old with black hair and brown eyes. Deputies say Pearce was last seen driving an older gray Dodge Dynasty with rust on the passenger side and the hood.

Prior to these recent crimes in Richmond County, Pearce was already out on bond in Burke County. Now Burke County investigators think he may be responsible for even more burglaries there too.

Investigators do believe pearce is running scared and will do what it takes to get away so anyone who comes in contact with him is urged to use caution and call police.