'He shot me': Survivor speaks out as property insurance crisis limits human trafficking resources

Editor's Note: This story contains descriptions of human trafficking activity that may be uncomfortable for some readers.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Gabrielle Triplett's story begins at a time when she was sleeping on the streets and addicted to heroin.

She said that's when sex traffickers approached her.

“They wanted me to do sexual things with them,” she said. “I am currently struggling with a serious addiction.”

“I could see the drugs were there, the money, so I did what they wanted,” Triplett said.

At that point, Triplett learned she could have medicine, food and a safe place to sleep at night — if she did what they wanted.

Until she says her trafficker flipped a switch.

“I had to go sell myself and give him money or he would withhold the drugs,” she said. “If I didn’t do what he wanted, he was very physically abusive.”

“He held knives to my throat,” she said. “He beat me so bad once I defecated.”

Fearing for his life, Triplett attempted to escape.

But when her trafficker found out, she said he took a gun and shot her in the chest.

“At the moment I'm totally shocked because the gun went off and there are sparks and smoke,” she said. “I’m like, ‘What was that?’”

“Then I took a deep breath and realized he had shot me,” she said. “Then my instinct kicked in.”

She ultimately spent 30 days in prison where she received a spiritual awakening from a man who came to visit her.

“He shared Jesus with me and he shared forgiveness with me and in that moment I was radically changed,” Triplett said.

She said that at that moment her chains of dependence were broken.

This helped her talk to law enforcement.

“I said to myself, 'I'm just a prostitute, I deserve everything that happened to me, I put myself in these situations,'” she said. “They were like 'no, no, you were being trafficked.'

That's when Triplett founded Selah Freedom, a faith-based nonprofit that fights human trafficking.

“I know now, I'm worth so much more, I'm smart, I'm capable, I can do anything I want,” she said with an ear-to-ear smile. “I went back to college, got my AA, bought my first house, unified with my family, growing my family.”

It's survivors like Triplett who are feeling the effects of Florida's property insurance crisis.

“With the amount of flood insurance and homeowners insurance increasing, it has impacted the number of people we can serve,” said Stacey Efaw, executive director of Selah Freedom.

Efaw said last year the nonprofit paid $33,000 for flood insurance and homeowners insurance combined.

Their quote this year is almost double.

“The sad thing is that right now we have people waiting three months to get into our house, but we just don't have the funding,” Efaw said. “That brings us to where you have to make a choice, you only have a limited amount of money.”

The Selah Freedom Residential Program accepts donations on its website.