I wouldn’t be aware of the story of visiting Harvard Law professor Carlos Portugal Gouvea if it weren’t for the post below on X. It’s almost unbelievable and the gist of it is in fact disputed by the perpetrator.
Carlos Portugal Gouvea, a visiting Harvard Law professor, was arrested in Brookline, MA for firing a pellet gun at Temple Beth Zion on Yom Kippur.
Read that again – a Harvard professor targeted Jews on our holiest day. pic.twitter.com/YSEGdaqVv5
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 4, 2025
Professor Gouvea denies he did anything wrong. He contends that he was “hunting rats” with the pellet gun. Depending on what he means by “rats,” however, his statement might be inculpatory.
According to the Harvard Crimson, synagogue leaders have bought Professor Gouvea’s account. An email blast from the temple’s president and executive director states 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.”
The Washington Free Beacon’s Jessica Schwalb reports the story in “Harvard Law Professor, a Founding Member of Think Tank That Drove Gun Control in Brazil, On Leave After Firing Pellet Gun Near Synagogue During Yom Kippur.” The subhead adds the inevitable detail: “Carlos Portugal Gouvea also serves as diversity commission president at the University of São Paulo Law School.”
The New York Post’s Andrea Peyser displays a cynical attitude toward Professor Gouvea’s story in her column “Harvard needs to answer for ‘hunting rats’ prof who shot near a synagogue.” I take it that the incident unfolded during the Yom Kippur Kol Nidre service at Brookline’s Temple Beth Zion this past Wednesday evening. Two private security guards working at the temple confronted Gouvea after hearing two shots and spotting him holding the pellet rifle.
As the guards approached Professor Gouvea, a “brief physical struggle” ensued. Professor Gouvea then ran into his nearby residence before coming out moments later. He was handcuffed by police and arrested. Officers later found a shattered car window with a pellet lodged in the vehicle.
According to Peyser, Professor Gouvea was arraigned the following day in Brookline District Court, charged with illegally discharging a pellet gun, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and malicious damage of personal property. He pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance.
A Harvard Law spokesman told both the Free Beacon and the Post that it has placed Professor Gouvea “on administrative leave as the school seeks to learn more about this matter.” The Free Beacon story adds poignant details about what students are missing in his absence:
Gouvea is teaching two courses at Harvard this fall: one called “Sustainable Capitalism” and another on “corruption and inequality.” When he started at the Ivy League university in 2022, he taught a corporate ethics class centering on “the social efforts to increase racial and gender diversity in companies, and the progress and backlash in the fight against corruption.”
Perhaps Professor Vagistan can fill in for Professor Gouvea while Harvard looks into the facts.
The Free Beacon notes, as usual: “Gouvea did not respond to a request for comment.”
