Man threatens SLO County prosecutor, held without bail

February 4, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

A 41-year-old Missouri man was ordered held without bail last week in connection with his threat to kill a San Luis Obispo County prosecutor and then explode a bomb at a school.

David Platek faces federal charges of making interstate threats to injure another person. Platek allegedly planned to rent a van and make a bomb from explosives and fertilizer. He would drive from Missouri to SLO County and, after killing the prosecutor, would explode the bomb at the school the prosecutor’s children attended.

At a hearing on Jan. 29, Platek argued the government was not entitled to a
detention hearing based on a threat of danger to the community, “noting that the government’s request for detention was only based on a serious risk of flight,” according to the order of detention.

Platek has a history of foreign travel, including recent travel to and residence in
Ukraine and Romania, according to the order. A former resident of Atascadero, Platek has lived in Missouri for the past 10 months.

Federal prosecutors argued that no condition or combination of conditions could reasonably assure Platek’s appearance at court “and the safety of any other person and the community.”

In describing Platek’s danger to the community, prosecutors noted the seriousness of the allegations, including “detailed and explicit death threats targeting the victim, a plan to kill the students at the school attended by the victim’s children, a plan to perpetrate mass killings through the use of explosives, a plan to obtain the material for the explosives, and a favorable comparison of himself to the Uvalde shooter and Luigi Mangione.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Alka Sagar on Jan. 29 ordered Platek detained without bail. He is currently incarcerated in the  Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 11.