Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, was arrested last week following a shooting incident in front of Temple Beth Zion on Yom Kippur. Gouvêa was charged with illegally discharging a pellet gun, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and malicious damage of personal property.
Security for the Temple called the police reporting a man with a gun, after the shooting which occurred their Kol Nidre service. There was damage to a nearby car that police believe is from Gouvêa’s pellet gun. According to the Temple’s statement, no one was injured in the shooting and they “have no reason to believe this was an anti-Semitic event.”
Gouvêa told authorities he used the pellet gun to “hunt rats in the area.” Following his arraignment, Gouvêa was released on his recognizance.
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Harvard Law placed Gouvêa on “administrative leave as the school seeks to learn more about this matter.”
Gouvêa himself graduated from HLS in 2008 and is an associate professor at the University of São Paulo Law School and the CEO of the Global Law Institute. His courses this semester at Harvard include Corruption and Inequality Seminar: Unraveling the Vicious Circle, and Sustainable Capitalism.
Gouvêa is due back in court for a pretrial hearing November 6th.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].