Agents thwart plot to blow up school, kill SLO County prosecutor
February 2, 2025
David Platek
Editor’s note: CalCoastnews is not naming the prosecutor out of concern for his family.
By KAREN VELIE
FBI agents recently disrupted a 41-year-old man’s plan to kill a San Luis Obispo County prosecutor and then explode a bomb at a local school with the goal of murdering 400 people.
David William Platek detailed his plan to extract retribution over his 2019 arrest after he allegedly impersonated a local activist who pointed out the misdeeds of then-San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill and Hill’s allies. Platek focused his rage on a local prosecutor who investigated his criminal impersonation.
“Everything I’m told says killing kids is the most pain I can inflict, and I have the right to fight back against the people who did this to me. A primal right,” Platek wrote. “Bullets are cheap and children are plentiful.”
“SLO wants to destroy my life, I’ll blow up one of their schools,” Platek added.
SLO County prosecutors in 2019 charged Platek with felony identity theft tied to his work as a political consultant. Platek, a software engineer, provided information technology services to former Supervisor Hill and several other candidates for local offices.
Local activist Kevin Rice regularly criticized Hill and his allies in the comment section of the SLO Tribune, a news source that generally posted glowing articles about Hill.
In 2018, Platek created a Facebook page identical to Rice’s page. It included a photo of Rice. Platek, pretending to be Rice, made a comment about a Tribune article about a convicted sex offender, saying that he (as Rice) had also had sex with children, and it was not all that uncommon.
Almost immediately after Platek posted on the Tribune as Rice, Aaron Ochs, a local troll known for spreading misinformation on behalf of Hill, wrote on his Facebook page that Rice admitted to being a sex offender.
After learning about the impersonation, Rice contacted the District Attorney’s Office which mounted an investigation that uncovered Platek’s role in attacking Hill’s critics. Prosecutors filed two counts of felony identity theft and one related misdemeanor charge against Platek in Sept. 2019.
Hill committed suicide in 2020 after FBI agents raided his county office. Without his testimony in the identity theft case, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s office dropped the prosecution against Platek.
But, even though he was not tried, Platek claimed that the publicity surrounding his arrest ruined his professional career, and he referred to his “underemployment” and Google search results that offered information about his arrest when he explained his reason to kill the prosecutor, his family and schoolchildren.
From Dec. 7 through Dec. 16, Platek sent dozens of texts to an acquaintance regarding his plans for revenge while also sending threats via social media to the prosecutor.
Platek planned to rent a van and make a bomb from explosives and fertilizer, he texted. He would drive from his home in Missouri to San Luis Obispo County and, after killing the prosecutor, would explode the bomb at the school the prosecutor’s children attended.
“I’d let the prosecutors children live,” Platek texted. “I’d wait for a sick day, let them live with the guilt of watching their classmates die because their father is corrupts [sic].” But in another text, he described how he would leave the prosecutor “surrounded by the bodies of his “family on a Christmas day.”
Platek justified his plans, claiming that the prosecutor had ruined his life. He compared himself to the shooter who killed 21 students and teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“The press woulda [sic] gone apeshit if it came out that the Uvalde shooter was a perfectly normal person until an official schemed to run his him [sic],” Platek texted on Dec. 9.
Platek wrote that his experience let him see the motives of school shooters.
“I suddenly understand the mind of the worst people: they go into those schools because they know it will leave a permanent hole in people. It’s making way to [sic] much sense to me,” Platek texted around Dec. 9th, adding, “It’s making way to [sic] much sense to me. It would be more fitting to leave the prosecutor and those responsible alive in an aftermath to explain what happened.”
The Uvalde school shooter had many motivations including the desire to achieve “notoriety and fame,” according to a report on the shooting “By the time he reached fourth grade, investigators say he was clearly struggling academically as he was identified as at-risk. A speech impediment that was not addressed or treated likely contributed to an overall lack of friends and bullying by other students, according to testimony from his family members.”
Platek’s texts show that he was aware of his mental state.
“Suicidal for three years and homicidal for one,” Platek texted on Dec. 10. “I’m becoming worse and more dangerous every day.”
Platek said he nearly shot a random stranger out of anger.
“I am not a coward and I won’t go quietly,” Platek texted. “I can’t trust myself because I’ve rationalized ‘violence is acceptable, hurting people is justified. I have one months [sic] rent left and that’s enough to get me to SLO in a rented van.”
Platek changed his profile picture on a social media account to a Mario Brothers character, Luigi, in support of Luigi Mangione, a man charged in the killing of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson.
Platek wanted his day in court to tell everyone what the system had done to him.
“I wouldn’t even kill myself, I’d want the trial,” Platek texted. “I am the monster the prosecutor and the broken justice system made me. You let it all happen, you all paid the price. Bullets are cheap and children are plentiful.”
While he would be remembered as a killer, he “was a decent person before the prosecutor, and I don’t care how I’m remembered for two weeks before I’m forgotten forever,” Platek texted.
On Jan. 2, Platek was arrested in Missouri for allegedly making interstate threats to injure another person. Federal agents later booked Platek in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 11.
Read Platek’s texts and threats in order of date sent
“The press woulda [sic] gone apeshit if it came out that the Uvalde shooter was a perfectly normal person until an elected official schemed to run his him [sic],” Platek texted on Dec. 9. “I’ve got the ammo, I just need to rent a uhaul and drive to CA. I’ll do [sic] out surrounded by the bodies the prosecutors family on a Christmas day.”
Platek said he would rent a van and drive to San Luis Obispo. He had “been eyeing a pallet of potassium nitrate” at a nearby farm.
“I suddenly understand the mind of the worst people: they go into those schools because they know it will leave a permanent hole in people. It’s making way to [sic] much sense to me,” Platek texted.
“Suicidal for three years and homicidal for one,” Platek texted on Dec. 10. “I’m becoming worse and more dangerous every day.”
He then admitted he nearly shot a random stranger out of anger.
Platek said he planned to host a website “killingxxxxx.com” and “killingxxxxx.se” offshore “where the feds can’t touch.”
“I want so badly to choke the life out of the prosecutor, it [sic] instead I’ll donate 6 organs to people desperate need,” Platek texted on Dec. 10. “I’m inclined to murder the prosecutor’s family in front of them because I am capable of such heinous vengeance, but concede no one has the stomach for that appropriate punishment reserved for power made tyrants.”
“Am I crazy and likely going to die a violent self-inflicted death, yes, but that will be hilarious too,” Patek texted on Dec. 11. “The village doesn’t want people like me in it, so I’ll burn it down to stay warm.”
“I am not a coward and I won’t go quietly,” Platek texted. “I can’t trust myself because I’ve rationalized ‘violence is acceptable, hurting people is justified. I have one months [sic] rent left and that’s enough to get me to SLO in a rented van.”
Platek sent a text saying that he “didn’t make any legally identifiable threats,” towards the prosecutor. He said he knew he would end up in prison and wanted to be remembered as a killer.
On a social media account, Platek changed his profile picture a Mario Brothers character, Luigi, in support of Luigi Mangione. He then described threatening the victim from an account without friends. He said the prosecutor would be too stupid to understand it was a death threat.
On Dec. 16, Platek texted his acquaintance saying he had decided to let the prosecutor’s children live, but they would have to live with the guilt of watching their classmates die.
“I’ll buy a van. I’ll get a job that gives me access to fertilizer,” Platek texted. “The second political assassination of 2024, the prosecutor assassinated two days before his second act, a large explosion killing 400, mostly children, in San Luis Obispo.”
“I wouldn’t even kill my self [sic]. I’d want the trial. ‘I am the monster prosecutor and the broken justice system made me.”
He threatened to use explosives to create a mass casualty event in San Luis Obispo that “will scar history books.”
He then threatened to commit a suicide mission before changing his mind.
“Nah, I’m back to my preferred answer. The amount of effort I’m asked to expel to restore my life is a lot less than packing a van full of explosives,” Platek texted. “It would be a lot easier to blow up a building.”
“I’d rather be remembered as a killer. I was a decent person before the prosecutor, and I don’t care how I’m remembered for two weeks before I’m forgotten forever.”
“I’ll carve my name into the epigenetic history. Fly a plane into a building. Blow up a private catholic school,” Platek texted on Dec. 16. “It’ll be easier for me to blow up a school. . . . The options are ‘restore my career’ or ‘most horrible act of terrorism in American history.’”
“Be afraid. I have no hope and I will hurt anyone I can get my hands on,” Platek texted “My revenge will scar history books. Everything I’m told says killing kids is the most pain I can inflict, and I have the right to fight back against the people who did this to me. A primal right.”
“Bullets are cheap and children are plentiful.” Platek also texted on Dec. 16. “SLO wants to destroy my life, I’ll blow up one of their schools.”
“On January 1, I will shift all of my focus to killing as many people as possible in my lifetime,” Platek texted. “I’ll take that truck driver job, and I’ll exist as a ghost committing atrocities across the nation.”
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