On October 27, 2006, during a labor dispute in the Mexican city of Oaxaca,[1][2] Will was shot twice, possibly by government-aligned paramilitaries, resulting in his death.

The mock ceremony included a procession of their wedding party in drag, parading in front of a Promise Keepers event in Boulder, Colorado.

Will was an active participant in protests across the country, usually for various social justice and human rights causes, and was involved with environmental movements such as Earth First!

His efforts stalled the demolition, but the city eventually leveled the building, which housed a café, a meeting place and a performance space.

Will later talked about the building in a program produced by Paper Tiger Television called "ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive".

In 1998, he and partner Hazel spoke at the Ecosaloon, a weekly activism forum held on Tuesday evenings at the Wetlands Preserve nightclub.

Their presentation connected the struggle to defend the forests of the Pacific Northwest with the fight against the gentrification of Manhattan's Lower East Side.

In August 2001 he joined participants for a roving exploration of usable food found in Tribeca dumpsters; they were accompanied by a TV crew from PBS's Life 360.

During the summer of 2006, Will continued videotaping demonstrations, including a June 15 protest at the Mexican Consulate in response to a police incursion into a teacher's plantón (encampment).

On June 29 he video-recorded and helped organize a protest against Victoria's Secret at the Manhattan Mall in response to the resources used to print the high volume of mail-order catalogs which the company mails out.

Traveling under a tourist visa, Will arrived in Oaxaca in early October 2006 in order to document and film the teachers' strike.

[7] During a news conference on October 29, 2006, Oaxaca mayor Manuel Martínez said that four men, all local public officials, were being detained in connection with the shooting.

[8] Later on the day of the shooting, the Oaxaca airport was closed to commercial flights as the Federal Police arrived to reestablish government control of the city.

On October 30, more than 200 protesters convened outside the Mexican consulate in New York City to deplore the killing of Will and others and to demand an end to the violence.