Long Beach Man Shot by Deputy : Law enforcement: Shooting is the first in the community involving the Sheriff’s Department.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy shot and seriously wounded an unarmed Long Beach man who, authorities said, did not follow orders to keep his hands in his pockets when the deputy stopped to question him about a robbery.

The shooting Wednesday night was the first involving a deputy since the Sheriff’s Department began patrolling northern Long Beach three weeks ago. City officials have contracted with the department in an effort to help their understaffed Police Department combat a rising tide of crime.

The wounded man, Palema Matangi, 27, suffered three bullet wounds and was listed in serious condition Thursday in the intensive care unit at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

The department’s four-year, $19.9-million contract with Long Beach makes that city the first in the state to have two law enforcement agencies within its boundaries. According to the state Department of Justice, Long Beach had the worst record of any major California city in 1989 for solving serious and violent crimes. Police failed to solve 74% of the rapes, 87% of the robberies and 93% of the burglaries reported in 1989.

Among those unsolved crimes was a residential armed robbery that occurred last year. On Thursday, while Matangi was under 24-hour guard at the hospital, deputies booked him for investigation of robbery in connection with the incident.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Bob Olmsted said that Matangi fit the description of the robbery suspect, but that there is not yet sufficient evidence to charge him.

Olmsted said the department also is investigating the shooting of Matangi to determine whether it was justified.

Matangi suffered wounds to the right arm, right leg and abdomen.

The deputy--a 15-year veteran whose identity was not released--was not injured.

According to Olmsted and other department spokesmen, the deputy stopped Matangi at the intersection of 67th Way and Orcutt Avenue after Matangi crossed the street in front of the deputy’s patrol car.

The deputy, recalling a recent department bulletin about the 1989 robbery, believed that Matangi matched the description of the suspect, Olmsted said. Olmstead would not provide details of the robbery, except to say that it occurred in the “immediate vicinity” of the intersection where Matangi was stopped, and that the suspect was considered “armed and dangerous.”

When the deputy got out of his car to question Matangi, he ordered him to stop walking and keep his hands in his pockets, according to the department. But a spokesman said the man crouched, drew his right hand from his pocket, then removed his left hand from his pocket, leading the deputy to believe that he had a gun.