Harvard professor arrested by US immigration agents after firing pellet gun near synagogue

BOSTON - US immigration authorities arrested a visiting professor at Harvard Law School this week after he pleaded guilty to discharging a pellet gun outside a Massachusetts synagogue the day before Yom Kippur, the US Department of Homeland Security said on Dec 4.

Associate Professor Carlos Portugal Gouvea, a Brazilian citizen, was arrested on Dec 3 by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his temporary non-immigrant visa was revoked by the US State Department following what President Donald Trump’s administration labeled an “anti-Semitic shooting incident” — a description at odds with how local authorities have described the case.OGIT

Assoc Prof Gouvea, who is from the University of Sao Paulo Law School and had taught at Harvard during the fall semester, has agreed to leave the country, the Homeland Security Department said.

He could not be immediately reached for comment, and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard declined to comment.

Assoc Prof Gouvea’s arrest came as the Trump administration

pressed Harvard to reach a deal to resolve a litany of allegations

it has made against the Ivy League institution, including that Harvard had not done enough to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish students on campus.

Harvard has sued over some of the actions the administration has taken against it, leading a judge to rule in September that the administration unlawfully terminated more than US$2 billion (S$2.60 billion) in research grants awarded to the university.

Police in Brookline, Massachusetts, arrested Gouvea on Oct 1 after responding to a report of a person with a gun near the Temple Beth Zion on the eve of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. 

Assoc Prof Gouvea said he was using a pellet gun to hunt rats nearby, according to a police report.

He agreed in November to plead guilty to illegally discharging the pellet gun and serve six months of pretrial probation. Other charges he faced for disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and vandalising property were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

Despite the Trump administration’s claims, the Temple Beth Zion has previously told its community members that the incident did not appear to have been fueled by antisemitism, a view shared by the Brookline Police Department, which investigated the matter.

The temple has said that police informed it that Assoc Prof Gouvea was “unaware that he lived next to, and was shooting his BB gun next to, a synagogue or that it was a religious holiday”. REUTERS