A suspect is being held at the Forsyth County Jail on rape, automobile theft and battery charges stemming from two incidents over the weekend.
According to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, Brian Keith Harris, 52, was arrested on Saturday, July 9, on charges of theft of an automobile, strong-arm rape, aggravated assault with other weapon and aggravated battery, all felonies.
According to a first incident report, at about 6:20 a.m. on Saturday, deputies responded to a call of an unknown woman on a caller’s front porch on Wiltshire Lane in south Forsyth County.
After making contact with the woman, the responding officer said she was “crying uncontrollably stating she had been raped and abused by the man next door,” who she identified as Harris.
The victim told deputies she had met Harris on a dating site and alleged he had strangled her with a cord, “beat her with what she believed was a brick-like object” and raped her before the victim left out of a basement door and crawled to the neighbor’s house.
“The grass was still wet from the morning dew, so you could see exactly where [the victim] had gone,” the incident report said.
Per the report, the victim was taken to Wellstar North Fulton Hospital and “provided similar statements as she did on the scene”
The victim reported that another man had been with her and Harris that evening but “left the residence when [Harris] started hitting her” and said she left her possessions – including her ID, two phones, bag, keys and clothes – in Harris’ house when she fled.
A few hours after officers responded to the first incident, Harris was arrested in Lawrenceville while driving a truck stolen from a Forsyth County business.
According to a second incident report, Harris was arrested at an Amazon facility at Belle Meade Court in Lawrenceville after the truck was found using GPS information. Harris reportedly admitted to a Gwinnett Police Department officer after being read a Miranda Warning that he had stolen the truck.
The report said the truck, a 2021 Freightliner Boom truck, was stolen from a tire shop on Peachtree Parkway after an employee noticed it was missing at about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.
