**TW**"
Harris came out on social media in January, but it was no surprise to her family and friends, her mother said.
She included laughing emojis with the Facebook post: “How did no one figure out I was gay!? I’m looking at my childhood pictures and I scream baby gay. How guys?!”
Harris served with the 545th Military Police Detachment. She worked with the man she identified as her attacker, but he serves with the Air Force. The Daily News is not naming the man because he has not been charged with any crimes at this point.
On Feb. 8, Harris reported being sexually assaulted after attending a party in late January, according to a briefing Stickford received last month from Army investigators on base. She told a friend about the assault confidentially before officially reporting it, her mother said.
By the time Harris made her report, it was too late to collect a rape kit, Stickford said. But texts on her phone — which Harris gave to investigators when she reported the assault — were collected as evidence, she said.
Harris had previously considered her alleged attacker a friend, her mother said.
“I guess he was making comments to her, other soldiers told me,” she said. “ ‘You just don’t know what it’s like to have a real man. If you did, you wouldn’t be gay.’ ”
After Harris made her report, the man was not confined, but a protective order required him to stay away from Harris.