Portland police are withholding the names of all the officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 48-year-old man who burst into a Southeast Portland homeless shelter Saturday night with a knife, citing "threats made regarding their safety.''

Sgt. Christopher Burley, police bureau spokesman, didn't describe the threats or their origin, but said police are continuing to assess them before releasing the officers' names.

Seven Portland police officers and one Multnomah County sheriff's deputy were involved in the shooting that killed John Andrew Elifritz about 8 p.m. inside the Cityteam Ministries on Southeast Grand Avenue.

Elifritz died of multiple gunshot wounds. Toxicology results are still pending.

The eight officers were scheduled to be interviewed Monday by internal affairs investigators, within the bureau's 48-hour requirement.

Internal affairs investigators are conducting a simultaneous investigation to the criminal inquiry to determine if officers followed bureau policies and training.

Twelve other officers were witnesses to the shooting.

The Portland Police Bureau Monday released a timeline of the events leading up to the shooting inside the shelter.

Officers in outer Southeast Portland had an encounter with Elifritz earlier Saturday afternoon but decided to "disengage,'' or walk away, though they had seen him holding a knife to his throat.

Soon after, police said, Elifritz was considered a suspect in one attempted carjacking, another successful carjacking, a road-rage encounter, and the crash of a stolen car before he entered the homeless shelter holding a knife, startling a group of men gathered for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

In 2011, Portland police shifted their practice in responding to mental health crises, pursuing a new approach of sometimes walking away from incidents. They began training sergeants to consider not engaging people with mental health problems if they're not an obvious threat to others, even if they're suicidal and armed. Some praised the move, while others criticized it for swinging too far to a hands-off response, potentially putting the public in danger.

Here's the police timeline of Saturday's events they say involved Elifritz:

About 2:25 p.m., a man who identified himself as Elifritz called 911 and reported his family had been murdered and gave a location in the 4400 Block of Southeast 79th Ave. Officers responded to the location, which was a duplex under construction. The contractor at the location said a man fitting Elifritz's description had been outside earlier and was acting in a bizarre manner. No one was found inside the duplex. Police later confirmed Elifritz's family was safe.

Other officers located Elifritz at Southeast 86th Avenue and Holgate Boulevard and attempted to contact him, but he backed away from them, retrieved a knife from his pocket and held it up to his throat. Elifritz ran from officers. A decision was made to de-escalate the situation by not pursuing him, but rather "make a referral to the Bureau's Behavioral Health Unit for follow-up.''

As officers were discussing the encounter, a community member approached and told them a man waving a knife had just attempted to carjack him. The victim did not want to report the crime, but wanted the police to be aware of the incident.

At 4:37 p.m., a 911 call was made by a woman who reported her 2003 silver Honda CRV had just been stolen from her by force at Southeast 72nd Avenue and Foster Road. Officers responded and learned a woman had struggled with Elifritz, who had jumped into the passenger seat and was wrestling for control of the vehicle. The woman's father was in a separate vehicle behind her at a stoplight. He got out of his vehicle and was able to disengage his daughter from the suspect. The suspect jumped in the driver's seat of the car and drove away.

At 7:25 p.m., a man called 911 call and reported he and his family had been a victim of road rage in the area of North Columbia Boulevard and Chautauqua Boulevard. Officers responded and learned the suspect in this case was Elifritz in the stolen Honda CRV. The victim said the driver was tailgating him and driving next to him in the bike lane and pointed a black object at him, which he believed to be a gun. (Police did not include this, but a recording of 911 dispatch indicated that officers later said over the radio that no gun was seen in the North Portland incident)

At 7:29 p.m., a 911 caller said he saw Elifritz jump out of a moving vehicle on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Stark Street. Police responded and the community member said the man appeared to be "drunk or high" and had left eastbound on Stark.

At 7:46 p.m., a 911 caller reported a man had been standing in the doorway of a store in the 600 block of Southeast Grand Avenue for the last five to 10 minutes, holding a knife in his hand. At 7:50 p.m., the call was updated that Elifritz was walking southbound on Southeast Grand Avenue.

At 7:55 p.m., it was reported a man had been standing in front of the 500 Block of Southeast Grand Avenue, holding a knife to another person's throat.

At 7:58 p.m., officers responded to the Cityteam Ministries shelter on Southeast Grand Avenue. The suspect was located inside. Officers deployed less lethal rounds and then broadcast that shots were fired at 8:00 p.m.

The owner of the Maple Leaf Restaurant, who spoke Monday with the Oregonian/OregonLive on the condition her name not be used, said Elifritz had walked into her restaurant on Southeast Foster Road Saturday afternoon before the alleged carjacking. He wore a rain poncho, was acting erratic and demanded to know what kind of soup they had.

"I told him chicken potato," the owner recalled in an interview.

"I don't like that kind of soup," the man told her, the owner said.

When the owner suggested another kind of soup, the man said it was too expensive. Then he asked her if the restaurant had wireless internet.

"I said, 'No, I don't have any WiFi," the owner said.

The man stormed out of the Maple Leaf and walked half a block east along Southeast Foster Road to 72nd Avenue. Restaurant patrons then saw the man dragging a woman out of an idling car before getting into the vehicle and speeding off, the owner said. Within minutes police were on scene interviewing the owner and patrons, she said.

Just before police arrived at the Cityteam Ministries, a dispatcher alerted officers the man with the knife had been identified as Elifritz.

"The suspect is going to be John Elifritz. ... A couple of calls earlier today he had a knife to his throat. He was ranting about his wife and daughter being murdered,'' the dispatcher told officers. "We disengaged from that on East.''

On Monday, Mike Giering, executive director of Cityteam Portland, declined to detail his understanding of Saturday's chain of events but said it's been traumatic for clients of his organization who were on hand.

The organization closed after the shooting and remained closed all day Sunday, he said. It was to reopen early Monday evening for dinner, and its emergency homeless shelter, which serves 58 men per night, was also set to reopen.

Giering described the police shooting as scary and tragic and said it's heartbreaking that someone died in his organization's building.

He said his organization wasn't aware of having any previous contact with Elifritz.

Giering estimated about 10 of Cityteam's long-term recovery clients were attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when the incident unfolded. He said some interns who live on site were at the shelter at the time, but no full-time staffers were there, which is usual practice on a Saturday night.

Everyone who saw the shooting was later sequestered into TriMet buses and questioned by police, Giering said.

Cityteam, a nondenominational Christian nonprofit, has operations in Portland, California and Pennsylvania.

Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said in a statement Monday that she asked county staff Sunday "to work with partners to provide counseling and support."

She said Trauma Intervention Program of Portland/Vancouver personnel have responded and thanked Cityteam, Imago Dei and Transition Projects "for moving quickly to continue to shelter and support visitors to the shelter."

Multnomah County residents who need mental health support can call 503-988-4888 or visit the Urgent Walk-In Clinic at 4212 S.E. Division St., according to Kafoury's statement.

Oregonian Staff Writers Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Jim Ryan contributed to this story.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian