The probe of an overnight car fire in Berkeley Township leads to a suspect from Toms River who allegedly attempted suicide by cop.

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Thomas M. Foti, 26, is charged with aggravated arson, with bail set at a full $150,000 in Ocean County Superior Court, and was transferred to Community Medical Center in Toms River for psychiatric evaluation.

Foti was found near a Walgreens on Route 9 in Bayville not long after Berkeley Township police officers responded to the blazing car outside Bubbakoo's Burritos, just after midnight, further up the highway, authorities said.

Witnesses described a man who told them that he torched his car and headed south on Route 9, investigators said.

According to information from the office of Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato, police matched Foti to witness descriptions and found him holding a shard of a flower pot that he broke as he passed a flower shop. He was arrested without incident, authorities said.

Investigators alleged that Foti had bought enough gasoline to fill two small containers at the Hess station in Bayville earlier Thursday evening, doused his hat with fuel, and tossed it toward his 2005 Toyota.

Foti is accused of planning to confront police with a large knife that was in the car with the intent of forcing them to kill him. However, the car was aflame before he remembered to retrieve the knife, investigators said.

He instead left, grabbed the shard and called a suicide prevention hotline before his apprehension, authorities said.

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