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Security guards confronted Carlos Portugal Gouvea on Wednesday after hearing two loud shots and seeing him with a rifle near Temple Beth Zion on Beacon Street.
A visiting professor at Harvard Law School has been placed on administrative leave after he was arrested for firing a pellet rifle outside a Brookline synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur.
Security guards confronted Carlos Portugal Gouvea on Wednesday after hearing two loud shots and seeing him with a rifle near Temple Beth Zion on Beacon Street. A brief struggle broke out when they tried to detain him, and Gouvea fled into his nearby home, according to court documents. He emerged moments later and was arrested by more than a dozen responding officers.
Police later found a shattered car window with a pellet lodged inside the vehicle. Gouvea told authorities he was “hunting rats,” though investigators say they found no evidence the synagogue itself was targeted. Harvard Law School spokesperson Jeff Neal told The Post that Gouvea “has been placed on administrative leave as the school seeks to learn more about this matter.”
Gouvea pleaded not guilty Thursday at his arraignment and was released without bail, and is scheduled to return to court in early November. The 43-year-old faces charges of illegally discharging a pellet gun, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and malicious damage of personal property.
A Harvard Law alumnus who earned his doctorate there in 2008, Gouvea currently serves as an associate professor at the University of São Paulo Law School and leads a Brazilian think tank focused on social and environmental justice. It remains unclear whether the Gouvea had any ties to the anti-Israel movement that has swept up Harvard post-October 7.
The arrest comes amid heightened security concerns for Jewish communities during the high holy days. Last week in Manchester, England, two people were killed and four seriously injured when a terrorist drove into pedestrians near a synagogue before stabbing victims. Police immediately neutralized the terrorist, later identified as Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent.
Authorities believe one victim, Adrian Daulby, was accidentally killed by police gunfire as congregants barricaded the synagogue entrance. Six people have been arrested on suspicion of terror offenses as investigators probe links between the suspects and Al-Shamie.
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