President Barack Obama said Friday that "every aspect" of the death of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager shot in Florida last month, must be investigated.
"My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin: If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Obama said. "I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, and we're going to get to the bottom of what happened."
The president was speaking Friday at the end of a news conference outside of the White House announcing his nomination of Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim for president of the World Bank.
Asked by NBC's Mike Viqueira to comment on the Martin case, which has prompted national outrage after the shooter evaded arrest for claiming he shot the unarmed teen out of self-defense, Obama said, "Obviously, this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids."
He added, "I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together - federal, state, and local - to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened."
Martin, 17, was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.
"All of us have to do some soul-searching to do figure out how something like this happens," Obama told reporters.
