TAYLOR, Mich. - A local city is mourning the death of a police corporal shot and killed on the job in Taylor. Police say Corporal Matthew Edwards was only 31. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. He was recently honored as "Officer of the Year".
Police say Edwards died while responding to a domestic dispute.
"We all expect to go home at night to our families... Please pray for Officer Edwards' family... Please pray for the Taylor Police Department and the many officers (that) put their own lives before others," said Taylor Police Cmdr. Dan Crowell.
Edwards' partner shot the suspect, who was taken to the hospital and had surgery. We're now learning more about that 36-year-old Westland man suspected of killing Edwards.
"I asked him if he was having a great birthday and he told me he was going to call me right back, and I didn't hear back from him," said Kameka Jackson, the suspect's girlfriend.
That was Thursday night, the last time Jackson heard from her boyfriend, Tyress Matthews, the man who police say pulled the trigger and killed Edwards.
"It's like wow. I just know that I got treated perfectly fine," Jackson said. "I don't understand how it got to this. I really don't."
While Jackson thought her boyfriend was celebrating his birthday, police say he was involved in a gun battle that took the life of Edwards. It started around 6:00 a.m. Friday when two Taylor Police officers responded to a 911 call that someone was breaking into the Coppertree Apartments. When they arrived, the officers confronted the suspect they caught going through a window. Turns out it was actually a domestic situation.
Witnesses say Edwards was talking to Matthews when Matthews all of a sudden pulled out a gun and started firing at Edwards. Edwards' partner quickly returned fire, shooting Matthews several times. The suspect and police traded more than a dozen gunshots. Matthews survived. Edward did not.
The 31-year-old leaves behind a wife and two young children.
"It's nothing I can say. I just feel sorry for the family," said Jackson. "I can't glorify anything. I can't justify anything. I can't do that. It wouldn't be in my best interest to do that."
Jackson said she had no idea her boyfriend of nearly a year was a career criminal serving 16 of the last 20 years in prison for crimes ranging from fleeing and eluding police to armed robbery and three counts of assault with intent to commit murder.
We're told Matthews underwent surgery at Oakwood Hospital and is in stable condition and is expected to survive. He could be arraigned as early as Saturday.
Meantime, we're told two memorial funds have been setup for the family of Officer Edwards. Donations can be made to the Cpl. Matthew Edwards Memorial Fund at any PNC Bank branch. A second fund has also been establised at PNC Bank by the Thin Blue Line of Michigan. Donations can also be mailed to Thin Blue Line of Michigan, P.O. Box 415, Howell, Mi 48844.
City of Taylor, within Wayne County, Michigan 
A Michigan police officer was shot and killed yesterday in an early-morning exchange of gunfire. Corporal Matthew Edwards, 31, of the Taylor Police Department, was responding to a call about a  of a home in an apartment complex on Pine Street near Telegraph and Northline Roads, in , Michigan.

After arriving at the scene, the Taylor Police Department say that two of their officers observed a man trying to enter an apartment through a window.  While his partner walked towards the building, Edwards approached the suspect and began speaking to him.  The suspect pulled out a gun and shot at the officer.  Edwards and his partner then opened fire on the suspect, who police say is 36-year-old Tyress Matthews from , which resulted in a volley of bullets being exchanged.  Residents told investigators that they heard between 15 and 20 gun shots in the shootout, and saw Edwards lying on the ground near his vehicle and screaming for help for about five minutes. 

Edwards and Matthews were taken to Oakwood Hospital in , where Edwards was pronounced dead. Matthews underwent surgery, and is reported to have non-life threatening injuries.  The second officer was not injured in the incident.  The  and officers from the nearby cities of  and  are assisting the Taylor PD in investigating the incident. Taylor police Commander Dan Crowell said while the initial report was of a break-in, it was more likely a domestic disturbance. Matthews has "quite a lengthy criminal history".

Residents of the apartment complex say that crime and gunfire is a common occurrence there. "I heard the shots. There were a lot of them," Teresa Webster told the ''''. "They woke me up. But I didn't think much of them because we hear so many gunshots around here. There was a stabbing here about a month ago. And three days ago, I found a body in a car in the parking lot. We thought (a teenaged male in the front seat) was passed out, but he was dead." Another resident, Arthur White, told the Associated Press that drug use and teenage delinquency is common in the complex, while Deborah Brown has decided that the incident today has convinced her to move out, following an increase of criminal behavior in recent weeks.

Matthew Edwards, a five-year veteran of the Taylor Police Department, is survived by his wife Shannon and two children, Luke, 8, and Moriah, 6. Before returning to his hometown of Taylor in January 2005, Edwards was with the . He is the first Taylor police officer to be killed in the line of duty since it formed in the 1930s. In 2008, Edwards was named Officer of the Year by the Police Officers Association of Michigan for shooting a drunken knife-wielding man who was attempting to .