"This was not a random act of violence," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said in a statement.
Asked about Edwards' condition, a spokeswoman from Abington Memorial Hospital declined to comment.
Court records indicate Edwards is on probation for drug charges in Montgomery County.
Wednesday's attack happened about two miles from the home of Robert Chae, the businessman fatally beaten and suffocated last year during a home invasion in Montgomery Township.
Authorities did not suggest that the Hancock Road robbery was related to Chae's death, but the latest crime reinforced the notion that such violence is no longer rare in the suburbs. In the last six months, police across the region have reported home-invasion robberies, including in East Goshen Township, Yeadon, and Upper Chichester.
Edwards was with his family when they were attacked outside their home around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Ferman said in a joint statement with Upper Gwynedd Police Chief David Duffy.
The statement called the crime a robbery and labeled the assailants "thugs," but didn't offer a motive or say what, if anything, had been stolen. Ferman said police were looking for at least two accomplices and didn't know whether either had been injured in the shoot-out.
Public records show that Jolene R. Pierce, 27, Edwards' wife, bought the house in September 2007 with help from a relative. The phone is listed in Edwards' name.
In 2005, court records show, he was among 10 defendants charged by Montgomery County prosecutors in a broad drug-distribution conspiracy. Edwards pleaded guilty to a lesser count involving marijuana possession and was sentenced to five years of probation.
