April 11, 2018
The
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Week in Review
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Photo by d anny P eterson /t he P ortland o bserver
City Team Ministries, 526 S.E. Grand Ave., was the site of a fatal officer-involved shooting Saturday.
John Andrew Elifritz, a 48-year old man wielding a knife, was killed in a confrontation with police after
he entered the building during an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The sign “More Mental Care Not
More Cops” was posted by activists during a vigil Sunday night and remained in front of the shelter on
Monday.
pages 7-11
Community in Shock
Knife wielding
man killed in
confrontation
d anny P eterson
t he P ortland o bserver
A deadly police shooting of a
48-year-old man wielding a knife
that occurred Saturday night at a
homeless shelter holding an Alco-
holics Anonymous meeting sent
shockwaves through the commu-
nity.
Eyewitness saw a white man
burst into the 12-step meeting at
the City Team Ministries shelter
at 526 S.E. Grand Ave., an orga-
nization that serves the homeless,
without a shirt on and wielding
a knife before getting shot and
killed by police. One of the wit-
nesses captured video from his
cell phone of a group of about a
dozen police entering the facility,
and then shooting the man in the
span of about a minute. The foot-
age was posted on Instagram.
Multiple witnesses said he was
waving the knife around and cut-
ting himself prior to being shot.
“It was horrific,” the videog-
rapher, Morgan Pickering, told
reporters. “We were all scared for
our lives.”
Police said that at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday they were responding
to a reported stolen vehicle crash
about a block away when a man
jumped out of a moving vehicle
by
M ETRO
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
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F OOD
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C ell Phone video by M organ P iCkering
Cell phone video from a bystander identified as Morgan Pickering
and uploaded to Instagram captures police officers aiming their
weapons at a man wielding a knife inside the City Team Ministries
building in southeast Portland Saturday night. The man was shot
and killed by police, shocking other witnesses and the community.
and fled on foot. He was confront-
ed shortly later after entering the
shelter.
Witnesses said police ordered
him to drop his knife, but he re-
fused, so they shot him.
The man was identified by police
and family members as John An-
drew Elifritz, a 48-year old shipyard
worker with a young daughter. Posts
on social media from the mother of
Elifritz’s child and close friends in-
dicated he had been experiencing a
mental health crisis the week lead-
ing up to the incident.
Police said Elifritz called 9-11
earlier Saturday to report his fam-
ily was murdered, which wasn’t
true, and an officer found him
on Southeast 86th Avenue where
he drew a knife, held it up to his
throat, and then backed away.
The police officer let him run-
away in order to “de-escalate” the
situation and referred the incident
to the Bureau’s Behavioral Health
Unit for follow up, authorities
said. Not long after, Elifritz is ac-
cused of stealing a car by force
from a woman after another car-
jacking attempt went astray.
Multiple witnesses at the City
Team shelter said the police were
justified in their use of force on the
C ontinued on P age 4