LITTLE ROCK — President Barack Obama spoke in highly personal terms Friday about how the killing in Florida of a 17-yearold black youth named Trayvon Martin had affected him, saying that “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
The comments by Obama were his first on the case in which a neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, has claimed self-defense after shooting Martin several weeks ago. The case has generated anger about the state’s so-called Stand Your Ground Law, which gives people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight.
23599531
Speaking about the case in the Rose Garden at the White House on Friday morning, Obama cautioned that his comments would be limited because the Justice Department was investigating. But he talked at length about his feelings about the case.
“I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this,” Obama said. “All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen.
“Obviously, this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through,” he said. “When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids.”
The most powerful line came at the end of his brief remarks, as he said that his “main message” was directed at the parents of Martin, who have expressed their grief during interviews on television over the past several days.
“You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Obama said, pausing for a moment. “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 are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”
Obama sidestepped some of the most sensitive and politically charged specifics about the case — whether Zimmerman should be arrested; whether the Stand Your Ground Law goes too far in protecting people who shoot others; whether the police chief in Sanford, Fla., where the shooting took place, should be fired. (The chief, Bill Lee, stepped down temporarily Thursday, saying he had become a distraction to the investigation.)
“I’m the head of the executive branch, and the attorney general reports to me,” Obama said. “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.”
Thousands of supporters of Martin’s parents expressed their anger about the killing at a rally in Florida on Thursday night, adding to the growing political dimensions of the case.
Thousands more marched in Philadelphia on Friday in what was dubbed the “Million Hoodie March.” Many participants wore hooded sweatshirts in support of Martin, who was wearing one when he died.
Police said the march started with 2,500 people but grew as it proceeded through downtown. Final police crowd estimates ranged from 5,000 to 8,000.
The shooting took place Feb. 26 in the Orlando suburb, when Zimmerman, 28, pursued, confronted and fatally shot Martin, an unarmed high school student carrying only an iced tea and a bag of Skittles.
Martin was returning from a trip to a convenience store when Zimmerman started following him, telling police dispatchers Martin looked suspicious. At some point, the two got into a fight, and Zimmerman pulled out his gun.
Zimmerman told police Martin attacked him after he had given up on chasing the teenager and was returning to his sport utility vehicle.
The Justice Department and FBI have opened a civil-rights investigation into Martin’s death, and a grand jury is considering whether to charge Zimmerman. Martin’s parents, civil-rights activists and others who have reacted to the case say they won’t be satisfied until Zimmerman is arrested.
“We want an arrest, we want a conviction, and we want him sentenced for the murder of my son,” Martin’s father said Thursday.
Martin’s parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, thanked Obama for his support Friday, saying in a statement the president’s words “touched us deeply and made us wonder: If his son looked like Trayvon and wore a hoodie, would he be suspicious, too?”
In a statement Friday, Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and a Republican presidential candidate, said the shooting was a “terrible tragedy, unnecessary, uncalled for, and inexplicable at this point.”
Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, another GOP candidate, made some pointed comments about the killing while campaigning at a shooting range in West Monroe, La., before the today’s Louisiana primary.
“Well, ‘stand your ground’ is not doing what this man did,” he said. “There’s a difference between ‘stand your ground’ and doing what he did.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, campaigning for the GOP primary Friday in Port Fourchon, La., said the district attorney had done “the right thing” in impaneling a grand jury. But, speaking of Zimmerman, he said it was “pretty clear that this is a guy who found a hobby that’s very dangerous.”
“Having some kind of neighborhood watch is reasonable, but you had somebody who was clearly overreaching,” Gingrich said. “As I understand Florida law, what he was doing had nothing to do with the law that people are talking about.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, speaking Friday at the University of Texas at Arlington, said the law he signed in 2005 doesn’t apply in the case.
“Stand your ground means stand your ground. It doesn’t mean chase after somebody who’s turned their back,” he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael D. Shear of The New York Times and by Ken Thomas, Kasie Hunt in New Orleans, Jim Kuhnhenn in West Monroe, La., David Fischer in Miami and Darlene Superville, Suzette Laboy, Mike Schneider, Kyle Hightower and staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/24/2012