Brazilian Professor Who Shot Pellet Gun Near Synagogue Agrees to Leave Country After ICE Visit

A Brazilian Harvard professor who claimed he was “hunting rats” when he fired a pellet gun near a Boston-area synagogue agreed to leave the country after visit with ICE.

The shooting event occurred October 2, 2025, which was Yom Kippur.

Brookline News reported, “The incident, which took place as the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur was beginning, triggered a large police response that brought more than a dozen officers to Temple Beth Zion at 1566 Beacon Street.”

The professor, 43-year-old Carlos Gouvea, was arrested and a search of the area turned up a car which with a shattered window and a pellet resting in the interior of the vehicle.

Gouvea pleaded guilty “to illegally firing an air rifle” outside the synagogue, according to the New York Post. And, following a visit by ICE last week, he has agreed to leave the U.S voluntarily rather then being deported.

DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said, “It is a privilege to work and study in the United States, not a right. There is no room in the United States for brazen, violent acts of anti-Semitism like this. They are an affront to our core principles as a country and an unacceptable threat against law-abiding American citizens.”