Jerry Kesserling

Jerry Kesserling served as the chief of the Placerville Police Department, having assumed the role after the retirement of Warren Talbot into the local Methodist cemetery in 1975. On the morning of the hostage crisis, Kesserling was the first senior law enforcement officer on the scene, arriving in one of the town's three black-and-white cruisers. He immediately began directing traffic onto the Oak Hill Pond road, establishing an initial perimeter around the school. As more police units arrived, including state police cruisers, Kesserling's role shifted to managing the growing crowd of onlookers and the roadblock that was set up on the highway above and below the school. He was present during the tense negotiations, standing among the enclave of cops on the lawn as Frank Philbrick, the state police captain, took command of the situation. Kesserling also had a prior connection to Charles Decker: he was the officer who picked up Decker in a patrol car after Decker attacked Mr. Carlson with a pipe wrench, and he later transported Decker to Central Maine General Hospital. His presence at the scene represented the local police force's integration into the larger state-led response to the crisis.