A visiting Harvard Law School professor has been placed on leave after he was arrested for allegedly firing a pellet gun near a Brookline synagogue as an important Jewish holiday was getting underway last week.

Brookline police arrested Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, an Associate Professor at the University of São Paulo Law School in Brazil working at Harvard University, after the professor was allegedly seen shooting a pellet rifle in the vicinity of Temple Beth Zion on Wednesday. Yom Kippur, generally considered the holiest day of the year in Judaism, had officially begun that evening.

Police say Portugal Gouvêa was spotted by a private security guard who working at the synagogue after the guard heard “at least two loud shots fired.”

“[The guard] then looked uphill and saw Mr. Gouvêa behind

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