Harvard suspends prof arrested for firing pellet gun near synagogue on Yom Kippur

Harvard University suspended Carlos Portugal Gouvea after the visiting law professor was arrested for allegedly firing a pellet gun near Temple Beth Zion, an “independent, inclusive” congregation in Brookline, Mass., on Yom Kippur.

A Harvard Law School spokesman told The Harvard Crimson, a student paper, that the visiting professor “has been placed on administrative leave, as the school seeks to learn more about this matter.”

The professor was arrested on Oct. 1 on charges of disorderly conduct, vandalism, disturbing the peace and illegal discharge of a BB gun, according to a report which the Brookline Police Department shared with JNS.

Per the report, a private security guard at the temple was in possession of the suspect’s pellet gun. After a detective came to the suspect’s home, where the latter fled after the incident, Gouvea was “compliant and escorted to the sidewalk where he was handcuffed,” the report states.

“Mr. Gouvea admitted to using the pellet rifle to hunt rats in the area. He was advised that it was unsafe to do so and to be aware of the alarm he had caused,” per the report.

A private security guard told police that after hearing “at least two loud shots,” he saw Gouvea “behind a large tree holding the pellet rifle.” He approached the suspect, who “set the rifle down against the tree.” When the guard tried to detain the suspect, a “brief physical struggle” occurred, and Gouvea “lunged towards the rifle,” per the police report.

After police arrived, officers saw a broken window of a nearby car and “what is believed to be the metal pellet round that was fired by Mr. Gouvea inside the passenger side front window.”

The temple posted on social media that “from what we were initially told by police, the individual was unaware that he lived next to, and was shooting his BB gun next to, a synagogue or that it was a religious holiday.”

“We were told that he was shooting rats,” the temple stated.

JNS asked Paul Campbell, deputy superintendent of the community service division and public information officer of the Brookline Police, if police is investigating the incident as a hate crime and if officers told the temple that the suspect didn’t know he lived near a Jewish house of worship.

“The hate-bias crime angle was part of the investigation-response on scene. Based on the information gathered, they did not see evidence that this was directed at the temple or connected any sort of hate-bias motive,” he told JNS. (He added that a rat “infestation” is a “real issue in Brookline, although this is definitely not the way to handle it.”)

“Mr. Goueva was cooperative with officers on scene, polite/respectful and answered any questions the officers asked,” Campbell told JNS. “He seemed to genuinely want to clear up the misunderstanding.”

Campbell didn’t “have any confirmation on exactly what was said by Mr. Goueva regarding being unaware that he lived near a temple,” he said.

“Unfortunately there were so many officers there that it’s difficult to know exactly which officer may have heard that statement or spoken with temple staff,” the police spokesman said.

JNS asked if it was plausible that a neighbor wouldn’t know that the temple, which has a Star of David on its exterior, was a Jewish house of worship. “I wouldn’t comment on a hypothetical situation or on a statement from one of our people that I can’t confirm,” Campbell told JNS.

Brookline News first reported that the professor allegedly broke a car window when he shot outside the synagogue on Wednesday night, hours after Yom Kippur started.

The incident “triggered a large police response that brought more than a dozen officers to Temple Beth Zion,” the outlet reported. “However, police said it did not appear he was targeting the temple.”

The professor is listed on the Harvard site as teaching fall 2025 courses on “corruption and inequality: unraveling the vicious circle” and “sustainable capitalism.”

He is due in court next month.

© JNS