Harvard Visiting Professor Arrested After Firing Pellet Gun Outside Synagogue On Yom Kippur

Carlos Portugal Gouvea, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, was arrested in Brookline, Massachusetts after allegedly firing a pellet gun outside Temple Beth Zion as Yom Kippur began — the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

According to Brookline police, the incident unfolded on the night of October 1 at 9:07 p.m. Security guards working at Temple Beth Zion for the holiday reported hearing two “loud shots” and saw Gouvea holding the pellet rifle. When they confronted him, Gouvea allegedly set the gun down, then lunged for it before fleeing into his nearby residence. Police arrived quickly, handcuffed him outside his home, and arrested him.

Gouvea, 43, was charged with illegally discharging a pellet gun, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and malicious damage of personal property after a parked car window was found shattered with a pellet sitting inside. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Brookline District Court Thursday and was released on personal recognizance pending a November hearing.

Gouvea told police he had simply been “hunting rats” with the pellet rifle. Officers warned him about the “alarm he had caused,” but the incident drew more than a dozen police officers to the temple just as Yom Kippur services were underway — a time when Jewish communities across the globe heighten security in the face of rising antisemitism.

The episode quickly drew national outrage, amplified on social media by StopAntisemitism and others who emphasized that a Harvard Law visiting professor had fired shots near a synagogue at the start of Yom Kippur. Critics highlighted Gouvea’s past online behavior, noting that on October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas and Palestinian civilians slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis — he posted “Rainy day, party time!” on social media.

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— Ben B@dejo (@BenTelAviv) October 5, 2025

Harvard Law School announced only late on Friday that Gouvea had been placed on administrative leave “as the school seeks to learn more about this matter.” But this raised further controversy. Observers accused the university and its student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, of soft-pedaling the story. Initially, The Crimson reported the arrest prominently and noted Harvard’s silence. But after outrage grew online, the headline and lead of the article were changed to emphasize Gouvea’s “administrative leave” — without clearly stating that the leave came only after the story had gone viral.

Critics charged that Harvard and The Crimson had coordinated a narrative to downplay the incident, burying the fact that an alleged gunman near a synagogue on Yom Kippur was still actively teaching at the law school until public pressure forced action.

Gouvea serves as an associate professor at the University of São Paulo and runs a Brazilian think tank on “social and environmental justice.”