After developing a rapport over nearly seven years with someone he arrested, ATF Special Agent David Hayes gained information that helped the Bowling Green Police Department make an arrest on a five-year-old double homicide.

Hayes, one of eight ATF agents based in Bowling Green, is currently assigned to the Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force, where he has helped pull many drug dealers off the streets.

The Kentucky Narcotics Officers’ Association recognized Hayes, a 21-year federal law enforcement officer, earlier this month, when he was named Narcotics Officer of the Year for the western part of the state.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jo Lawless nominated Hayes for the award.

“I nominated him because he is the consummate professional,” Lawless said. “He works tirelessly in drug investigations. We have, over the past seven years, worked a significant number of cases together. One of the reasons I nominated him was an arrest that he made in the spring of 2005.”

That arrest lead to multiple other drug arrests and convictions and ultimately led Hayes to information that helped the BGPD in March arrest Gilbert U. Holts Jr., who is charged with the April 21, 2005, shooting deaths of Jamaal Covington and Latasia Kirk.

Long after Hayes completed his drug investigation, he continued building a rapport with the source, who eventually helped break the homicide case.

“I think that that clearly demonstrates Special Agent Hayes’ ability to look at the bigger picture,” Lawless said.

In 2004, Hayes began talking to the source who ultimately provided that vital information for the case.

“I immediately contacted (BGPD) Detective (Barry) Raley and passed the information on to him,” Hayes said.

Raley, Hayes, an assistant U.S. attorney and the informant’s attorney traveled to another state to talk to the informant, who was at that time incarcerated, Hayes said.

“I think we were all pretty shocked that it turned out to be credible (information) and that he had had it all these years,” Hayes said.

Lawless refers to Hayes’ communication skills both with his colleagues and the people he arrests as a “gift.”

“That particular gift … also transcends into interviewing subjects who become defendants who are willing to be cooperators, and that makes him exceptionally effective in this line of work,” she said.

“He’s a great ambassador between federal, state and local” officials, Lawless said.

No matter the agency, Hayes considers all other law enforcement officers his “colleagues,” she said.

Task force Director Tommy Loving said Hayes’ “number one talent” is being able to work with other people.

Hayes treats people well, Loving said, even the people he is arresting.

“He’s very deserving of this award because he’s taken multiple mid- and upper-level drug dealers off of the street, and any time you can clear a drug-related multiple homicide that … is more than commendable,” Loving said.

Hayes was “shocked” to receive the award.

“It was honor to receive the award,” he said as he gave credit to the other officers he works with for helping him achieve the honor.

Hayes is a graduate of Warren Central High School and Western Kentucky University.