A man stabbed his 8-year-old daughter to death and critically injured his three other children Saturday in a predawn rampage through the family home, police said. Michael Wayne Nida, 31, also cut his wife and then slashed his own wrists and stomach, and was arrested for investigation of homicide, police said. He was listed in serious condition at Sutter General Hospital. His wife, Diana Nida, received a superficial wound in the hand during the attack and was treated and released from University Medical Center. Neighbors said they watched horrified as the man fatally stabbed the girl with a 10-inch knife in the driveway, then apologized to her. When police arrived, they found four stabbed children lying in the living room. Officers were attacked by a pit bull dog, which they shot. Eight-year-old Laura Nida died at the medical center a short time later, police said. April, 4, and John and Erick, 7-year-old twins, were listed in critical condition Saturday night following surgery for multiple stab wounds. Police said neighbors had indicated that Nida might have been under the influence of drugs, though they gave no details. The Sacramento Bee quoted neighbors as saying that Nida often used crack, amphetamines, marijuana and alcohol. Shortly after the attack began, Mrs. Nida ran out of the house, naked and bleeding, and screaming ``He stabbed my babies and he cut me!'', witnesses said. Neighbor Terry Lauer said Nida emerged through the front door and approached his wife, saying: ``It's OK, man, I just want to talk to her.'' Lauer said he told him to go back into the house, and Nida did. Moments later, however, he ran from the front door again, this time chasing the 8-year-old girt with what Lauer described as a bowie knife. ``He caught up with her and they both ended up on the ground,'' Lauer said. ``I saw him pick her up by the hair, then stab her twice with the knife. Her body went limp.'' Lauer said Nida then knelt over his daughter, cradling her body in his arms. ``I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you,'' Lauer recalled Nida saying. Nica then carried the lifeless girl back into the house.
