It's an unanswerable question probably, but the LA Weekly's Christine Pelisek says police are puzzled by an aspect of the Lily Burk murder. Surveillance video shows the 17-year-old walking with suspect Charles Samuel to the ATM at the Union Bank on Second and San Pedro streets in Little Tokyo, then trying and failing to extract cash.

Deeply troubling to police and many others is the fact that the video — taken from a building near the bank — shows people walking past Burk and Samuel, and even shows a customer using the ATM as both walk away — yet Burk does not call out to them for help.

“Apparently nobody suspected anything,” says homicide Detective Al Marengo. Samuel did not appear to be dirty or homeless, Marengo says. In fact, from the video, “I can see [that] no one paid them any attention. ... You would have thought it was [just] two people walking up to the ATM.”

This was at 3:35 p.m. on July 24. About 4 p.m., Burk called her parents and asked how to withdraw money. At 4:52 p.m., police say Samuel parked Burk’s Volvo at 458 S. Alameda St., and that she had been killed by then.

* News: Lily died from her neck being slashed, the coroner said today.

Related: Long, heated comment thread at Blogdowntown on the "quality of life arrest" issue.