Visiting Professor at Harvard Leaves US After Accusation

A Brazilian professor teaching at Harvard Law School agreed to leave the US after he was charged with shooting a pellet gun outside a synagogue and accused of antisemitism—an allegation disputed by local law enforcement. Carlos Portugal Gouvea was arrested Wednesday in Brookline, Massachusetts, the Department of Homeland Security announced, and chose to not remain in the US to battle deportation proceedings, USA Today reports. Federal officials have not been swayed by the findings of police or the synagogue.

Gouvea was arrested after private security guards at Temple Beth Zion, a few miles from the Harvard campus, heard a loud noise outside the synagogue on Oct. 1, during a service on the eve of Yom Kippur. One of the guards spotted Gouvea behind a tree, holding a pellet gun. A police report said Gouvea fled and was arrested later at his home. He told police he'd been hunting rats in the area. Gouvea was charged with firing the gun and other minor charges, but no crimes related to antisemitism. Synagogue leaders agreed with police, telling the New York Times that "It is potentially dangerous to use a BB gun in such a populated spot, but it does not appear to have been fueled by antisemitism."

In a speech in October, a Harvard Chabad rabbi said, "This man is married to a Jewish woman and has Jewish children, and it's absolutely nothing to do with targeting the Jewish community," per the Harvard Crimson. Gouvea has returned to Brazil, where he teaches at Sao Paulo Law School, a spokesperson said. "It is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security, said in a statement. "We are under zero obligation to admit foreigners who commit these inexplicably reprehensible acts or to let them stay here."