‘If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon’
PRESIDENT OBAMA, addressing the killing of an unarmed Florida teen in deeply personal terms, said he saw the faces of his children inside the hoodie of the slain black youth.
The nation’s first AfricanAmerican President spoke about the racially charged slaying for the first time Friday at the White House, expressing his heartfelt sympathy for the parents of Trayvon Martin.
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Obama said in response to a reporter’s question. “And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids.”
The boy’s parents “are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves,” the President said.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”
Martin was gunned down Feb. 26 in a suburb of Orlando, Fla., while walking back to his father’s house carrying nothing more lethal lh than an iced tea and a bag of Skittles.
The 140-pound teen was killed by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman who claimed that he only fired in self-defense after the 17-year-old jumped him.
Zimmerman, 28, said he became suspicious of Martin because the young man was wearing a hooded sweat shirt.
The killing of the high school student caused a nationwide uproar that intensified when the shooter was released without any criminal charges, because he claimed he was acting in self-defense under Florida’s “stand your ground law.”
Trayvon’s parents issued a statement Friday thanking the President for his support in their time of suffering.
Obama words “touched us deeply and made us wonder: If his son looked like Trayvon and wore a hoodie, would he be suspicious too?” asked Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton.
In a sign of support for Trayvon, Knicks center Amar'e Stoudemire wore a hoodie for a portion of pregame warmups Friday, and NBA superstar Lebron James tweeted a photo of the Miami Heat all wearing hoodies with the hashtag #We areTray von martin. White House spokesman Jay Carney said it was unclear if the President planned to contact the parents directly about the case.
“I don’t have any information in that regard,” he told reporters.
Obama, carefully choosing his words to avoid any interference
with the investigation, expressed his support for a Justice Department and FBI civil rights probe of the case.
A Florida grand jury is also considering charges against Zimmerman in the slaying that forced the local police chief to temporarily step down and the local prosecutor to recuse himself.
“I think all of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” the commander in chief said.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who signed “stand your ground” into law, said it should not apply in this case.
“This law does not apply to this particular circumstance,” Bush said in Texas. “Stand your ground means stand your ground. It doesn’t mean chase after somebody who’s turned their back.”