Laravel 5.4 seeder is 'killed' by OS - looks like an issue with Eloquent Create

I am having an odd issue using laravel 5.4. My seeds are being "killed" at the model::Create() method.... i believe the killed message is from the OS. It looks like it works if i "new up" the model then fill it.....

   //works fine
    System::truncate();

  //New-ing up a system then filling it works fine;
    $system = new System();
    $system->fill([
        'name' => 'Peter I',
        'company' => 'EmbMoi',
        'email' => 'ci@-moi.com',
        'password' => bcrypt('secret'),
        'phone' => '585-344-1170',
        'address' => '1  NY, 14534',
    ]);

    //create is not working fine: returning message killed after stalling for some time
    System::create( [
        'name' => 'Peter',
        'company' => 'cf, LLC',
        'email' => 'vf@vd.com',
        'password' => bcrypt('secret'),
        'phone' => '585-484-1170',
        'address' => 'abc street',
    ]);

I must be missing something obvious?

via Craig Iannazzi