Man accused of revenge plot against SLO County elected official enters plea
The Missouri man who allegedly threatened to bomb a SLO County school, killing at least 400 people, and murder a San Luis Obispo County elected official pleaded not guilty to criminal threats earlier this month.
David William Platek, 41, of Springfield, Missouri, was charged with interstate criminal threats by the U.S. Department of Justice. He is alleged to have texted several “true threats” to someone in December with the intent to kill and harm an elected official and other members of the public in San Luis Obispo County.
He pleaded not guilty to the crime on Feb. 18, court records show.
According to court documents, Platek sent “detailed and explicit threats” to injure and kill an elected official in retaliation for being charged with identity theft in a case that was subsequently dropped.
Platek was previously charged with felony identity theft in 2019 for posing as SLO County political activist Kevin P. Rice on Facebook. Those charges, which were filed by the SLO County District Attorney’s Office, were eventually dismissed for furtherance of justice, meaning a judge found that there was reasonable grounds to dismiss the charge.
Platek reportedly told investigators that “he has been homicidal for one year and suicidal for three years, almost shot somebody because he was angry, cannot trust himself, and his purpose is to kill as many people as possible, including innocent community members,” court documents said.
He is accused of sending “detailed and explicit death threats targeting the victim, including in front of the victim’s children, a plan to kill the students at the school attended by the victim’s children, a plan to perpetuate mass killings through the use of explosives, (and) a plan to obtain the material for the explosives,” court documents said. He also compared himself “favorably” to the Uvalde school shooter and Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Platek’s trial was scheduled for March 25, court records show. He will remain in federal custody without bail.
