The parents of Trayvon Martin expressed relief Wednesday over a special prosecutor’s decision to charge the man responsible for their 17-year-old’s death.

Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said if she could speak directly to George Zimmerman, she would allow him a chance to say he is sorry for what happened.

“I would probably give him a chance to apologize,” Fulton told the Associated Press in an interview. “I would probably ask him if there were any other way that he could have settled the confrontation that he had with Trayvon, other than the way it ended, with Trayvon being shot.”

She remained stoic, and expressed faith that the justice system would work as it should.

“We simply wanted an arrest,” Fulton said at a press conference. “We wanted an arrest and we got it,”

“Thank you, Lord, thank you, Jesus.”

Martin’s father, Tracy Martin, offered several questions that he would like to ask Zimmerman about the sequence of events that led up to Trayvon’s death, but in the end he would want to know, “Was it really worth it?”

The parents spoke in Washington shortly before special prosecutor Angela Corey announced in Florida that Zimmerman, 28, had been arrested on a second-degree murder charge in their son’s Feb. 26 death.

The parents and Trayvon’s brother, Jahvaris Fulton, were attending a national conference convened by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

They watched Corey’s announcement on television in a room at the Washington Convention Center. As soon as Corey uttered the words “second-degree murder,” Martin and Fulton grasped hands, and their attorney, Benjamin Crump, placed his hands over theirs.

They appealed for their supporters, as well as Zimmerman’s supporters, to remain calm in response to the prosecutor’s decision.

“We’ve always said that we want peaceful resolution, no matter what side you’re on,” Martin said.

“We don’t want them to stop the protest and the rallies, we just want to make sure that they remain peaceful,” Fulton said. “We’re going through the process the right way, the proper way. We just ask that everybody that supports us do the same thing. Even the ones who don’t support us, we want to make sure that they protest in a peaceful manner.”