911 Calls Reported Woman Walking on Freeway Before CHP Beating

In the moments before cellphone video showed an officer repeatedly punching a woman on the shoulder of a Southern California freeway, nine drivers called 911 reporting that the woman was walking barefooted on the freeway shoulder.

• Listen: 911 Call Moments Before CHP Beating

One 911 caller told a dispatcher July 1 that the woman was walking barefoot back and forth on the eastside of the Santa Monica Freeway onramp at South Fairfax Avenue, according to CHP recordings released Wednesday.

"..and it's getting darker so they might run her over," the caller said.

• Updates: Download Our News App

At some point, an as-yet-unidentified CHP officer tackles and then repeatedly strikes a woman, identified as 51-year-old Marlene Pinnock, in an incident recorded on a cellphone camera by a passing motorist.

"I didn't see a vehicle," said another caller. "She was walking pretty frantically down the, the, shoulder."

The footage sparked outrage among civil rights groups calling for the firing of the officer and calls by a California legislator for the Department of Justice to investigate.

"The 1st time I watched it in its entirety I was shocked. It was an ugly event, no doubt about it," said retired BART cop Dave Blake, who has no ties to the CHP.

Blake suffered a career ending injury on a use of force incident and empathizes with the unidentified CHP officer.

But Blake, a use of force expert, also expressed caution when drawing conclusions about the footage.

"You miss a lot of things just looking at something one time," he said. "Broke it down, frame by frame, I found that this was not excessive. The officer just responding to certain threats against him."

Blake believes Pinnock clearly didn't want to deal with police and therefore posed a danger.

Passersby indicated she was a danger to herself.

"There's a female, black wearing a pink dress. She's trying to cross, uh..cross, into, uh...several lanes," said another caller.

The CHP supervisor met Tuesday with several civil rights activists and promised to wrap up his investigation in weeks.

The unnamed officer is on desk duty.

NBC4's Tena Ezzeddine contributed to this report.