Obama Comments on Martin Shooting: 'If I Had a Son, He Would Look Like Trayvon

>> mr. president, may i ask you about this current case in florida, very controversial allegations of listenering racism within our society of the so-called stand your ground law and the justice in that. can you comment on the travon martin case , sir?

>> well, i'm the head of the executive branch . and the attorney general reports to me. so i've got to be careful about my statements to make sure that we're not impairing any investigation that's taking place right now. but 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. and you know, 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. so i'm glad that not only is the justice department looking into it, i understand now that the governor of the state of florida has formed a task force to investigate what is taking place. to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen. and that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened. as well as the specifics of the incident. but my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. you know, if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. and, you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. all right.

The Martin shooting has garnered considerable attention this week. The unarmed young man was shot and killed by self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, who claims he was defending himself after Martin attacked him. He was not arrested for the shooting partly because of Florida's "stand your ground" law.

Since the shooting, however, Zimmerman has been accused of racist remarks, raising the question that the incident might have been motivated by hate.