{"id":62198,"date":"2025-12-05T21:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/62198\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T21:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:07:17","slug":"harvard-law-prof-who-fired-pellet-gun-near-synagogue-said-he-was-hunting-rats-agrees-to-leave-us-dhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/62198\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard Law prof who fired pellet gun near synagogue, said he was \u2018hunting rats\u2019 agrees to leave US: DHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brazilian Harvard Law School professor who pleaded guilty last month to illegally firing an air rifle outside a Boston-area synagogue \u2014 and told police he was \u201chunting rats\u201d<\/a> \u2014 has agreed to leave the US following his arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week.<\/p>\n

A Harvard Law professor from Brazil has agreed to leave the US following his ICE bust this week. harvard.edu<\/p>\n

Carlos Portugal Gouvea, 43, copped Nov. 13 to a single charge of illegal use of the air rifle in connection with the Oct. 2 incident outside of Brookline\u2019s Temple Beth Zion, which took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.<\/p>\n

The scholar was arrested by ICE Boston Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Wednesday and agreed to return to Brazil voluntarily to avoid deportation, according to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right,\u201d DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. \u201cThere is no room in the United States for brazen, violent acts of anti-Semitism like this. They are an affront to our core principals [sic] as a country and an unacceptable threat against law-abiding American citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Harvard Law School employee told cops he was \u201chunting rats\u201d outside the synagogue. zimmytws \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Gouvea, a visiting law professor at the Ivy League institution, was in the US on a so-called J-1 (temporary non-immigrant) visa, which was revoked by the State Department two weeks after the shooting incident.<\/p>\n

After firing two shots, Gouvea was confronted by the synagogue\u2019s private security, leading to a \u201cbrief physical struggle\u201d before the suspect fled inside his home near the house of worship, according to a police report cited by Brookline.News.<\/p>\n

Gouvea pleaded guilty to illegally firing an air rifle outside a Boston-area synagogue. Brookline Police Department<\/p>\n

When confronted by local cops, Gouvea claimed he was using the pellet gun to hunt local vermin. Police later discovered one of the shots had shattered a car window.<\/p>\n

Harvard Law placed Gouvea on administrative leave, but did not publicly reveal any additional disciplinary action<\/a>. As part of the professor\u2019s plea deal, charges of disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and vandalizing property were dismissed.<\/p>\n

The synagogue incident took place days after President Trump claimed Harvard had reached a tentative deal with his administration to restore $2.4 billion in frozen federal grants, ending a clash over issues including discrimination against Jewish students <\/a>following Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brazilian Harvard Law School professor who pleaded guilty last month to illegally firing an air rifle outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3283,7064,179,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-62198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-arrests","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-harvard-university","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}