Police Roadblock

The Police Roadblock was the primary physical barrier erected by law enforcement to contain the hostage crisis unfolding inside Placerville High School on the morning of Charlie Decker's rampage. Located on the highway shoulder adjacent to the school grounds, it marked the outermost perimeter of the emergency zone, separating the gathering crowd of townspeople, parents, and media from the immediate danger of Room 16. More than a mere traffic control measure, the roadblock became the symbolic frontier between the ordinary routines of a small Maine town and the extraordinary violence that had erupted within its high school.

Establishment and Location

The roadblock was set up on the highway running past Placerville High School, with police directing traffic onto the Oak Hill Pond road as early as the first wave of reinforcements arrived. Jerry Kesserling, the town's police chief since 1975, personally took charge of managing the diverted vehicles, while state police cruisers and local black-and-whites parked across the road from the school to form a visible barrier. The roadblock was reinforced with sawhorses and double rows of kerosene pots—those sooty little bombs of a cartoon anarchist, as Charlie Decker described them—and a DETOUR sign was hastily erected by the Department of Public Works. The roadblock's location placed it within clear view of Room 16's windows, allowing Decker to observe the comings and goings of police, firemen, and officials throughout the standoff.

Function and Crowd Control

As the crisis drew national attention, the roadblock served to hold back an increasingly large crowd of onlookers. Citizens from town arrived in their cars, and police tried to shoo them away with varying success. Mr. Frankel, owner of Frankel's Jewelry Store & Camera Shop, drove up in his new Pontiac Firebird and jawed for quite a while with Jerry Kesserling, pushing his horn-rimmed glasses up on his nose constantly as he talked. A newsmobile from WGAN-TV pulled up, and one of the guys got out, patting his process neatly into place, before jawing with a cop who pointed across the road. The roadblock also became the point where parents gathered, including Mrs. Dano, who talked with one of the state troopers, her slip hanging a quarter of an inch below the hem of her dress, her hands fluttering and whipping like flags. The roadblock thus became a stage for the community's anxious spectatorship.

Escalation and Tactical Significance

As the standoff progressed, the roadblock's role expanded from passive containment to active tactical positioning. Police drove a cruiser onto the lawn and parked it parallel to the school, using it as cover while officers with riot guns ran down behind it to do secret things. The roadblock also marked the forward position from which Frank Philbrick, the blocky state police captain, strode toward the school to negotiate, and from which the sharpshooter Daniel Malvern took his position behind a cruiser's front fender. When Decker fired four shots through the windows, the troopers dived down out of sight, the cameramen hit the gravel, and the clot of spectators broke and ran in all directions—the roadblock momentarily abandoned as everyone sought cover. After the hostages were released, the roadblock remained in place as Philbrick walked stolidly toward the school to end the crisis, flashbulbs popping all over the place.