POLITICAL Ombudsman and head of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) Bishop Herro Blair is to launch an investigation into last week’s murder of eight people in Tredegar Park to determine if they were politically motivated.

“I have heard several reports from some persons who have linked the killings to politics, but it is too early to make such a determination,” Bishop Blair said yesterday while touring the troubled community.

He said that two years ago the PMI was called to the Tredegar Park community to investigate the murder of two people but that he never thought he would have been called to the area for an even more gruesome act.

“To hear how the victims were killed, how they begged for their lives, it is very sad,” said Bishop Blair.

Neil Powell, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for the Lauriston Division, in which Tredegar is located, claimed that the murders of eight people from two families was an attempt to rid the community of supporters from his party.