I believe Moses was motivated by curiosity about his Hebrew brethren. He had been raised as one of the elite in Egyptian society. Now that he
was grown up, he wanted to learn more about the other part of his heritage. When he went to observe the Hebrews, he saw an Egyptian overseer
beating a Hebrew slave. Perhaps Moses was motivated by outrage at the overseer's behavior; perhaps he thought by helping the Hebrew slave he
could show that he, too, was a Hebrew and not "just" one of the Egyptians. He looked around to see if anyone was looking; no one was, so he
killed the Egyptian overseer and buried him in the sand. The scriptures didn't say if the Hebrew was still there when he did this, but it is
most likely the slave ran away as soon as he was free from the overseer; the slave probably told all the others what had happened.
Some of the positive facets of Moses' character were his ability to think quickly and take action when required. He did stop and think long
enough to see if someone was watching him, but did not seem to worry about the consequences once he had buried the Egyptian overseer. He was very
surprised the next day when he came upon some more Hebrew slaves who were fighting each other. When he asked them why they were fighting among
themselves, they asked him who was he to be over them? Was he going to kill them, too, like he killed the Egyptian overseer? This was a shock
to Moses because they did not seem to appreciate what he did.
Some of the negative facets of Moses' character at this time were his seeming impulsiveness and lack of forethought when he took action by
murdering the overseer. He seemed to be confused as to who he was and did not show any awareness of God at this time.