Two men have been charged with robbery in the first degree as it relates to the investigation of the armed robbery of an employee outside the Exchange State Bank in Ames.

Eugene Barney, 27, and Benjamin Sanchez Styles, 27, have both been charged with the class B felony of robbery in the first degree.

The robbery occurred at 7:43 a.m. June 30. A female bank employee was approached by a man described as black, approximately 6-foot, 180-pounds, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses, blue jeans and tennis shoes.

The suspect showed a handgun and robbed the employee of an undisclosed cash amount before leaving the area on foot.

The woman was left uninjured.

Police said eyewitness accounts led them to the apartment. After a search warrant was issued for the apartment, Barney and Styles were arrested as felons in possession of firearms.

Police are also looking at the two in connection to other crimes; including a similar attempted robbery in December at the Greater Iowa Credit Union when a man with a handgun met a female bank employee and told her to take him and another man inside and open the vault. After explaining she didn’t have access to the vault, the two men robbed her and left.

The two men are currently held in the Story County jail.