President Barack Obama made a searingly personal plea on Friday for Americans to come together and do some “soul searching” after the shooting death of African-American Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watchman, noting: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

“My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d 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 get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” Pres.

Obama said in response to a shouted question in the White House Rose Garden.

Amid angry charges that race played a central role in the tragedy, Pres. Obama said “all of us have 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.”