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Police officers blocking the entrance to Ingles market in Black Mountain, North Carolina, on September 28, 2024. Latin Times

Residents in a small North Carolina were shocked to find local police officers blocking a local grocery store entrance and refusing residents access to life-saving goods including baby formula.

Over three days, Hurricane Helene devastated much of the Southeast region of the US, killing more than 100 people and leaving millions without power. North Carolina was one of the hardest-hit states; more than 30 deaths occurred in Buncombe County alone, according to WITN, and Black Mountain, a small town near Asheville, was one of the worst affected in the area.

Considering the dire situation, Black Mountain residents were shocked to find police in front of a local grocery store, blocking community members from buying food, diapers, and even baby formula.

X user @RaffeyeEl sent an initial tweet seeking assistance with finding a plane or helicopter to help him and his wife get out of Black Mountain and home to their son. In a follow-up tweet, he wrote the couple had been sitting in an Ingles grocery store parking lot for nearly six hours, but "Ingles refused to open or sell anything to anyone even turning away families with small children and babies."

He added that families were "told 'we don't have anything'" despite seeing a stocked store through the windows. Cops then started enforcing a 7 p.m. curfew by allegedly barricading the grocery store's front door with their vehicles, according to X.

Social media users denounced the police department officers and Ingles Markets grocery store chain, which has since made its X account private, for not helping residents in need.

According to a Facebook update from the Black Mountain Police Department, the grocery store's parking lot is now being used to distribute water to community members. One user asked if community members could bring cash to buy food from the store to which the department responded "No."

Latin Times reached out to Black Mountain Police Department for comment but they have yet to respond at the time of publication.

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