WFAA-TV

Cristal Jaimes shows the damage to her home.

DALLAS — With temperatures in the 90s, it's almost too hot to be outside. But at one home in the 900 block of Brookmere Drive, it's unbearable inside.

"My eyes hurt a lot," explained Cristal Jaimes. "My nose, my throat. So I can't be in the house."

Cristal now lives in a house full of holes. They're in the windows; in the attic; in the doors.

Even their van out back has broken windows.

Dallas SWAT officers filled the home of Jaimes’ parents with more than a dozen tear gas canisters overnight looking for her 18-year-old brother. They thought Cristobal Jaimes — the suspect in a murder case hours earlier — was home last night.

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Who should pay when police damage a family's home?

But Cristal and her family said they told police the 18-year-old was not there, and even gave police permission to see for themselves.

"I told them," she remembered, "I can go in there with you so you can check that there's nobody in there."

But Dallas police weren't sure. The department said it called for the 18-year-old suspect using loudspeakers and never got a response.

SWAT said it even used cameras to peek inside and never saw anything.

Finally, after 30 to 40 minutes, police decided to launch tear gas into the house.

Going in, SWAT found nothing — just as the family said.

"I want them to fix everything," Cristal said emotionally. "The way it was."

Repairs will be expensive, and neither she nor her parents did anything wrong. They say they complied with police demands, but they left them with a house that's hardly livable.

The city's risk management department said the homeowner is responsible for his own repairs since police were conducting official business.

Cristobal Jaimes remains at large. Dallas police consider him armed and dangerous.

E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com