A West Island man was arraigned on murder charges on Monday, after his landlord was found with fatal gunshot wounds over the weekend.

Constantinos Tountas was a day shy of his forty-sixth birthday when he was shot to death on Saturday in the basement of a Roxboro duplex he owned.

Tountas had just dropped his daughter off at a Greek school and had gone back to the building to do some renovation work.

Police later took a 33-year-old tenant of the building into custody. Originally called a “key witness,” Michael David Burns was charged with first-degree murder.

In 2007, Burns was ordered by the court not to possess any firearms for a 10-year period for another offense. That restriction was lifted this past fall.

After his court appearance, Burns was remanded to custody and will next appear in late June.

Tountas’ friends and family said he worked as an aeronautics mechanic and was well-respected in the community. One family friend who asked not to be identified said she had known him for years.

“He was a great father, I got to know him throughout the years,” she said. “He was at our wedding, he was there for us, he cared so much about people. He was such a good dad to his daughter and he had just lost his father five months ago.”