The family of a woman who was caught on camera being pummeled by a California Highway Patrol trooper on the side of a highway have spoken out for the first time since the incident, demanding justice for the victim.

'He punched and pound and pound on her, the only thing she could do was block her face,' Mayisha Adams, the unnamed victim's daughter, said Saturday.The woman had been walking barefoot on eastbound Interstate 10 west of downtown Los Angeles Tuesday before the officer tackled her to the ground.A passing driver videotaped the incident showing the CHP trooper pinning down the woman and repeatedly punching her in the face. The victim's family have hired Los Angeles attorney Caree Harper to represent them in the case against the California Highway Patrol. Harper said her clients want the authorities held accountable for 'beating a great-grandmother in broad daylight.'The lawyer declined to disclose the woman's name or answer questions about what she was doing along the edge of one of the city's busiest freeways.'We want the focus to be what he was doing to her, not what she was doing' prior to the confrontation, said Harper, who said she is representing the family. 'She was getting beat like an animal. No one should ever be beat like that.'The California Highway Patrol has vowed to carry out a thorough investigation - but authorities claimed the trooper in question simply stopped her for her own protection.CHP Assistant Chief Chris O'Quinn said at a news conference that the woman was endangering herself and people in traffic, and the officer was forced to restrain her.O'Quinn added that the woman had begun walking off the freeway but returned when the confrontation occurred.The officer involved has not been identified and has been put on paid administrative leave while the investigation is carried out.Passing motorist David Diaz recorded the uniformed officer as he jabbed the woman at least 11 times in the head Tuesday.'The most animalistic, most brutal way to subdue someone is to pound someone's head into the concrete with really big blows to the head,' Diaz told ABC7.'There was no weapons - it's obviously excess force,' he continued. 'He starts really letting loose... He starts pounding down on her face really hard. He doesn't try to grab her hands first.'The video on Diaz's cell phone shows him slowing down for a traffic stop as a woman can be seen heading towards the median on the freeway.As punches begin to fly, the woman can be seen trying to sit up and protect herself by putting up her hands but she does not appear to resist the trooper.The officer approaches her before he forces her to the ground and pins her down, repeatedly hitting her while Diaz and his fellow car passengers gasp in horror.Eventually another man - later identified by the CHP as an off-duty officer - approaches the trooper and helps handcuff the woman.'A physical altercation ensued as the pedestrian continued to resist arrest, at which point a plain clothes, off duty officer assisted in applying the handcuffs,' the CHP said in a statement to ABC7. Diaz told the AP in a phone interview Friday that he arrived as the woman was walking off the freeway. He said she turned around only after the officer shouted something to her.'He agitated the situation more than helped it,' Diaz said, and started filming soon after.O'Quinn said the incident report listed no injuries for the woman, who would not give her name.'When asked if she sustained any injuries, the pedestrian did not advise of any nor were any located by the officers at the scene,' according to the CHP statement.The CHP earlier said the woman was booked as 'Jane Doe' and taken to a local hospital for mental and physical evaluation.The officer is on administrative leave while the law enforcement agency investigates. He has not been identified.The video caught the attention of local civil rights leaders, who expressed shock and outrage at their own news conference.'Speaking for the women of this community, we are angry, we are upset,' said Lita Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition.O'Quinn said the CHP would answer community concerns and that an investigative team already has been assembled and has begun its work.'We are known as an agency that really polices itself,' O'Quinn said.O'Quinn said he could not say what prompted the officer to act as he did. But he noted California Highway Patrol officers have a heightened sense of the dangers of being on the freeway compared with a citizen 'who is not accustomed to the speed and conditions,' especially outside of a car.'The most dangerous thing that we face is traffic,' O'Quinn said.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.az