Last night, a Wilson man held police at bay for a more than 12-hour standoff stemming from officers attempting to serve involuntary committment papers on him. Eric Radke reportedly posted a number of threatening posts on Facebook ("I hate everyone and if you come to my house I'm gonna shoot you," etc.), which may have sparked the commitment papers, but it was Radke's gunshot into the air when police arrived that led to the standoff.

Eventually police deployed tear gas canister's into his home and he surrendered just before 6 a.m. this morning. Police said he was taken to hospital to be evaluated. No charges have been filed yet.

Our paper did not cover the standoff because it happened in Wilson County and we are a Twin County paper, but I have covered a couple in the past and each time, I am left wondering "WHY!?!"

I took the above picture during a June 10, 2010, stand off where a man barricaded himself from marshalls attempting to serve murder warrants from another state. Robert Looney used his girlfriend as a shield and started a 10-hour standoff with authorities that ended with him taking several bullets, but survived.

A few years back, I covered another standoff near Greensboro where the man held his girlfriend hostage and eventually surrended to police following nearly 20 canisters of tear gas being shot into his rural home.

Both of these experiences taught me a number of things:

• If you are the one who is causing the standoff, you will likely get shot or come out crying once police have said "enough is enough, let's end this."
• If you are the neighbors around one of these standoffs, you might as well assume you aren't getting close to your house for at least 24 hours.
• If you are a friend or family member of the suspect, you can expect to answer a bunch of questions by law enforcement and by the media that all go something like "why would he/she do this?"
• If you are a reporter who might cover one of these events, PLAN AHEAD. Have drinks, food, stuff to keep you entertained, power cords for all your gear and even a pillow and a blanket in your car because you will likely be in it for the long-haul.

Unfortunately, regardless of the lessons I've learned a long the way, I still can't answer that question of "why" someone or anyone would think it is okay to shoot at or even just threaten to shoot at cops or anyone else... It is not going to end well for anyone involved.

Why do you think people like Radke or Looney do things like this? Do you think authorities should end these quicker by shooting first and asking questions later?