Ensign’s nephew arrested in incident

Sen. John Ensign's nephew was arrested early Friday morning on multiple felony charges, including two counts of attempted murder and his second drunken driving offense.

Eric S. Ensign, 23, of Las Vegas was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on two counts of attempted murder, and one count each of misdemeanor driving under the influence and felony tampering/injury to an emergency motor vehicle.

Ensign was found slumped over the steering wheel of a car at the intersection of Buffalo Drive and Washington Avenue about 5:45 a.m. after a number of citizens called emergency services, Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell said.

When medical responders from the Las Vegas Fire Department and American Medical Response attempted to check on Ensign, he tried to run over two of the responders with the vehicle, Cassell said.

Ensign then rammed the car into a Fire Department vehicle and fought with medical personnel outside of the car.

Ensign was restrained until police arrived. Several of the medical responders suffered minor injuries.

John Ensign, R-Nev., had no comment, spokesman Tory Mazzola said. "This is a private family matter," Mazzola said.