Miami-Herald
September 22, 2006
Fight over abortion preceded police officer’s murder-suicide
By Trenton Daniel

An argument over an abortion preceded an incident last month in which a Plantation police officer killed her firefighter boyfriend, then herself, a mutual friend told investigators.
Plantation police officer Laura Grunas shot Robert Peat dead, then killed herself at his home, 823 NW 98th Ave. after a loud argument that spilled into the street on Aug. 4, police say.
A few weeks before the fatal shooting, Grunas, 30, and Peat, 31, decided that Grunas needed to terminate her pregnancy, according to a police report obtained by The Miami Herald on Friday.
On the day of the shooting, neighbors say, Grunas was especially hysterical. She stood outside in front of Peat’s garage yelling, Why is everyone blaming this on me? He killed my baby.”
Michael Roth, a friend of the couple and a volunteer Plantation firefighter, witnessed the argument.
Referring to the abortion, he told police, “He was enormously upset about it. He was a lot more religious than me and didn’t believe in that, but they had felt that that was the right thing to do for whatever reasons.”
Peat was a diver for the Plantation Fire Department and also worked full time as a firefighter in Palm Beach County.